Recently an individual accused me of cavalier behavior where it concerned my trips into the backcountry of Montana and Idaho. Well, hmm. I might have a small response to that studious statement.George Armstrong Custer of Little Big Horn fame was cavalier. John Colter of Colter’s Hell, David Crockett of the Alamo and John Fitzgerald Kennedy of PT Boat 109 fame were not. Each of these last three men was respectively a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the United States House of Representatives and President of the United States.
All of them had at least one thing in common; they died before their time. Custer disobeyed the orders of his superior officer and died near the Little Big Horn River in Montana, plus he took a bunch of other soldiers down with him. Colter, after many legendary adventures, quit the backcountry of Montana and promptly died of civilization at the ripe old age of 38 or 39, the same approximate age of Custer, only I hear it was jaundice not lead poisoning that got him. Crockett took off for Texas, just in time for a losing fight at the Alamo. Sadly Kennedy was assassinated.
All four of these guys took chances. But the first one jumped off a cliff like it was nobody’s business, what with him being a famous Civil War general, Indian fighter and bulletproof. About halfway down someone might have even asked him if he had a parachute. The response might have been something akin to, “Well what the hell is that?” bad prep I believe.
Kennedy did what he needed to do when PT 109 was chomped in half by a Japanese destroyer. He used his training and common sense, plus a whole lot of effort, and saved the men on his boat. A genuine “use your head-don’t stop” tough guy.
Crockett could have left at any time from the Alamo while it was under siege, before that final predawn attack that killed him and the other defenders. Impressive.
Colter’s conduct and adventures were nothing less than incredible. The list of what he did again and again, remade him on the living legend level every few years or so. He is also the man who got stripped naked by Blackfeet warriors, after his partner was killed, and then was given a small head start before they took off after him. It was a nice hundreds of miles race that he apparently won.
Year round I train to stay in a physical state that is absolutely required to have any chance at surviving on some of those winter trips I take. Cavalier.
I spend months working on the plan of where, what and how the trip is going to be. Nor are these trips halfway around the world, but in my backyard. More cavalier.
When I crossed Glacier National Park during the winter of 2006, it took six trips of working out the kinks before accomplishing the task. Damned cavalier!
There is no doubt on my part that the trips I take during the winter do have a level of brevity to them at certain points. At the base of Blodgett Pass I was in an ongoing snowstorm, the latest in a series during the prior three days. I had to make a decision on whether I was going to climb into those clouds where the summit was hidden away, and all in a two-feet-deep pre-avalanche fresh-snowpack. I made the call based on my experience and the conditions that were there at the time.
For someone to accuse me of being cavalier concerning this and so many others like decisions might be nothing more than a sideways admittance of that person being a damned fool.
I spend months putting together the food supplies, all dehydrated and stored in sealed plastic bags. There is hardly any room for amenities beyond my real needs inside the backpack, which will weigh anywhere from 90 to 100 lbs on Day-One of a trip. In other words, I have to be very careful about what goes into that load. I check and recheck my route on the maps. I even go on scouting trips to see about certain points of doubt. I guess these are all exercises of being ridiculously cavalier.
This person also addressed the thought that if I was going to put material concerning my trips into the hands of the public I ought to feel some responsibility to those who would read the material. I believe there is certainly some plausibility to that statement. There are definitely people who would go try something they read about, only too late they find out there might be more to surviving than just taking a bag of rice and a book into the wilderness. That is why I have a disclaimer and warnings on my website. Generally that disclaimer is not for reasonable people, who would quickly deduce they are not qualified, nor are they interested in getting very qualified to go where I go and do what I do. Nope, the disclaimer is for those who are not reasonable.
I know that sounds insulting and probably is, but I happen to fit in this latter rank. The difference is that I grew up on the edge and even inside the environment I travel in. I also note that most people, unreasonable and balanced, do get realistic within a short time in a winterized backcountry trip. After the first night or two they scurry back to the trailhead and a warm vehicle. I sure think about getting out of that snowdrift on a regular schedule, mostly while lying in the sleeping bag early in the morning. I normally don’t get all right until I am moving again, later that morning.
Many have followed in John Colter’s footsteps. Many got themselves killed for that. But there were others who didn’t.
Here is my bottom line statement concerning cavalier conduct in the backcountry during the winter: I do not believe a person can go out trip after trip, year after year and continue to survive while being cavalier.
On the other hand, Stoney Indian Pass during the winter of 2009 might be my Little Big Horn. Or maybe Stanley Butte in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness will be the nemesis of my downfall. I don’t know.
Alex Lowe and Dale Earnhardt are gone now, having been swept away while doing what they loved so much, and what had also made them legends while they were alive. You know, I have not heard of a single disparaging remark on these men for their conduct. I have heard a lot of admiring statements though.
There is one thing that is a certainty about them from where I am sitting; they didn’t die in a recliner or hospital bed from a dour case of heart attack, stroke, or cancer, after a lifetime of a living death watching the exciting lives of others through a television screen.
By the way, this same person and I agreed that I am no writer either. Well gosh, I am neither formally trained in writing nor photography. Sadly I am not trained in avalanche avoidance either. Isn’t it just all kinds of unfortunate how I am the one with the trips and the photos though?
Cavalier conduct, indeed!