Top five safety tips from The Alpine Club of Canada

Everyone loves the fall colours and spending the day hiking, right? All fresh air and wholesome good times with friends – until something goes wrong: you get off route or you get in over your head, or you forget a piece of gear and get into a fight about it. Whatever the issue, chances are it could have been avoided if you’d done something different earlier on. Here are five tips, for your first trip or your thousandth, for reducing the chances that your beautiful day on the trail goes sideways.

 

1. Do your research

It shouldn’t be a surprise that weather, trail conditions, photos, maps, video, trip reports and more are available online so there’s not much excuse not to be informed. And as anyone who planned a trip even 10 years ago will tell you, the amount of information available is a miracle. Use it.

2. Assess your skills

Be honest – with your group and with yourself – about what you can do. If you’re directionally challenged, don’t have others rely on you to navigate. Not in top shape? Dial back your expectations and do something easier. Know nothing about first aid? Say so.

And then keep putting in the effort to get better. Take part in the map work on the trail. Keep training and keep learning. Whatever the endeavor, building your skills is one of the most rewarding things you can do. Plan on improving methodically, consistently, over time. Don’t expect miracles and don’t cut corners.

3.Bring the right stuff

Try not to read this as “bring all the stuff”. Different objectives require different gear so take a fresh look at each piece each time. Do you need a headlamp? Light shoes or sturdy boots? Will hiking poles make things easier or slow you down? How many layers?

Bring what you need, toss what you don’t. Remember, if it doesn’t sustain you or help you along the trail you probably don’t want it on your back.

4. Make a plan

You know where you’re starting and finishing, but what about what happens (or might happen) in between? How will you deal with turning weather, injuries, wildlife encounters, wrong turns, and unknown unknowns? Talk it out, write it down, leave instructions with someone not on your trip. It’s fun to hope for the best, but it’s more important to plan for the worst

 

5. Go with good people

If this was a ranked list, this item would be at the top. Great partners do their research, contribute skills, bring the right stuff and have plans. They can keep themselves calm when things get weird and generally help turn epics into adventures. Lousy partners do the other things.

Go with good people. And try to put yourself in that category so that others want to go with you.

 

6. Bonus safety tip: Consider your motivations

Clear your mind and ask yourself why you want to do your trip. What about it animates you? What do you see? How does it feel?

Wait, why is this a safety tip? Because intrinsic motivation (personal accomplishment) leads to fewer accidents than extrinsic motivation (outside demands or obligations). Ask the dude racing through a famous hikes tick list or the ‘Influencer’ leaning out over a cliff to get a selfie about their motivations.
 

Stay safe and have fun.
 

The Alpine Club of Canada has been our country’s national mountaineering club since 1906. With a national office in Canmore in the Rocky Mountains and 25 local sections from coast to coast to coast, we are open to everyone. Join us.

About the Alpine Club of Canada
Established in 1906, the ACC is Canada’s national mountaineering club with a current roster of 17,000 members. The organization operates the largest network of backcountry huts in North America, from the Conrad Kain Hut in BC’s Bugaboos Provincial Park (highest hut located at 9,700 feet) to the Keene Farm Hut (lowest hut located at 1,115 feet). The ACC runs guided adventures out of its national office in Canmore, which last year had 54 adventures and 634 participants. It also runs a General Mountaineering Camp every year in the high alpine.