Group, Safety »

Remember when you were in school, you would go on a field trip and have to use the restroom? There was always a buddy system in place where you had to take someone with you in case you get lost so you are not alone.

This applies to many other things including sports such as, hiking, mountain biking, and/or any type of climbing. Basically any sport where without a buddy you would find yourself in a remote area with no one but yourself. There are two reasons for this, one, you may get lonely. With no one but yourself around, who will you spend time with, talk to, admire the view, or become motivated by? This is unless you enjoy being alone, maybe allowing yourself sometime to think and ponder the world, or perhaps you are just an extremely independent person. If that is the case then maybe the buddy system doesn’t apply here, however, no matter how much you may prefer to be alone, it is always best to have someone with you, mainly for the second reason — in the event that you become injured and are in an area without cell phone reception, without said buddy, there is no one there to help assist you on returning home, or in the instance you become unable to move, there will be no one there to return home and find help for you. You can understand where the problems begin to arise, yes?

The movie 127 Hours, heard of it? It is based on a true story of a mountain climber whose arm got caught under a boulder preventing him from moving. In order to escape he removed his arm, from his body, scaled a 65′ wall and hiked over eight miles before being rescued. This outcome is rare, probably why they made a movie about it. What I learned from this, more-so what beliefs this movie has reinstated in me, is to always have a buddy. The fact is, that though you both may become injured, therefore taking away the usefulness of the buddy system, you still have a higher percentage of becoming rescued by having someone there as opposed to being alone.

It’s crucial you make use of a buddy system when rock climbing, or taking part in any adventures outdoors. Here are a few helpful hints you can follow to make sure you will not get left behind.

1. Always tell someone, be it friend, family, co-worker, ANYBODY, where you and your buddy will be when you take part in any of these sports. This allows someone to know you are missing and where to find you if something happens and they do not hear from you.

2. Bring your cellphone and make sure there is reception where you go, you can look this up online. Who cares if it is something else you have to carry. That small yet useful piece of plastic and metal could be your only lifeline if an unfortunate event occurs. Most every phone had GPS at this point too, so make sure that is turned on. Again, you can look up where your provider has reception online so there should be no reason for this work to be ignored.

3. Please, please, please, bring enough water and food (that will not spoil) in case something was to happen, to last you a couple days. If something does happen to you, try your best to make sure it occurs around water so you do not become dehydrated. However, this may not always be the case so again water and food, bring it!

Assuming you follow at least the first rule of telling someone about where you and your buddy are, everything should work out just fine.