From: eugene@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: [l/m 8/12/1992] Morbid backcountry/memorial: Distilled Wisdom	(16/28) XYZ
Followup-To: poster
Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 92 11:20:10 GMT
Reply-To: eugene@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)

Panel 16

Ways to die involving the backcountry.  Nurturing Mother Nature?
Hardly.

Most frequent: car accident going to or from a backcountry trip.
	Alcohol related (frequently).

Plane crash.  Flip over, equipment malfunction, pilot error, fatigue, etc.

Struck by lightning.

Falling off a rock.
Getting hit by a falling rock.
	Natural rock fall
	Man induced rock fall.
Getting hit by a wall of snow.
Falling into a crevice.
Other miscellaneous falling objects (trees, human objects, etc.).

Exhaustion
	Loss of judgment from secondary affects

Drowning.
        Canoe (any boat) capsizes in high waves, etc.
        slip on a rock lining a canoe up rapids
        slip on a rock fording a rapid (hikers)
	Drowning because of a bad belay on a stream crossing.

Bit or stung by
	Bees (allergies)
	Spiders
	Snakes: Rattlers, water moccasin
	Jelly fish

Poisoning
	Shell fish
	Mushrooms
	Contaminated food

Being eaten by:
	Shark
		Don't get in the water
	Lion and tigers and bears, oh my!
	Alligators
	Ants (slowly)

Disease
	Plague from flea infested squirrels
	Rocky Mountain Spotted fever from ticks

Skiing, cycling, driving into a tree

Explosions involving stoves, fire, etc.
	Accidental gun shot (dropping)
	Gun accident (being shot by partners)
	1990:
        Total firearms-relating hunting accidents - 1,564
        Total two-party fatalities - 99
        Total self-inflicted fatalities - 47
        Total non-fatal, two-party injuries - 988
        Total non-fatal, self-inflicted injuries - 430

Starvation

Hypothermia
	Frostbite
Hyperthermia
	Dehyration

Breaking thru thin icy waterways
	Drowning
	Hypothermia
	Loss of essential equipment

Swimming, rowing accident
	Alcohol related

Evolution in action.
	Selected against.

ran across traffic injury accident statistics for the state of California.
I don't claim that these are representative of the country as a whole.  I
also wish they were more comprehensive, in terms of breaking bicycle
injuries down by age of cyclist and fault on the accident itself.
But they're all I could find on short notice.
 
Collision with:        Accidents       Deaths          Injuries

Car                     153829          1897            258732
Object                   33614          1471             45175
Pedestrian               17014           956             17493
No collision             13029           553             17384
Bicycle                  15187           126             15692
Parked car                6817           108              8645
All others*               1712            62              2637

Total                   241202          5173            365758

Interestingly, on a per accident basis, you're more likely to be killed
in a car-car accident(1:81.1 accidents) than a car-bike accident(1:120.5).
Also, the ratio of injuries to deaths is only slightly better for car-car 
accidents (1:136.4) than for car-bike (1:124.5).  This is particularly 
striking to me, because we don't have a ton of steel to protect us.  
The lower speed of travel seems to outweigh our vulnerability to injury.

I interpret the low injury-to-accident ratio for car-bike accidents to
mean that for all practical purposes drivers don't get hurt by hitting
a bicyclist.  I assume that in every case the bicyclist was injured, and
perhaps even more than one bicyclist.  Even if it's only one bicyclist
per accident, that's only one car occupant injured in every thirty 
accidents.


"After seeing this series, I can't see why anyone would want to go to
a National Park."  --Comment made by the wife of a climbing partner
after seeing the short-lived TV series "Sierra."

=====

This part is for our friends, family, acquaintances, and heros who have
passed away.  Regardless of whether they died climbing, travelling,
to or from climbing, or in their sleep.  They were people who pushed limits.
Our friends will be missed.  We remember them here.

		Bill Drake
		John Harlin, II
		Bill "Dolt" Feuerer
		Wally Henry
		Mark Allen Losso
		Mike Blake
		John Mokri
		Tim Harrison
		Peter Barton
		Ben Factor
		Gary Gissendaner
		Nick Estcourt
		Don Partridge
		Arkel Erb
		Tobin Sorensen
		Steve Jensen
		Thomas Mutch
		Jay Veenheusen
		Ted Flinn
		Art van Eenenaam
		Mark Hoffman
		Harry Glicken
		Conor Milliff
		Art Caulkins
		Robert Sinnock
		Charles Daffinger
		Bob Godfrey
		Dave Simonett
		Chuck Wilts
		John Yablonski
		R. Scott Rogers
		Roland Pettit
		John High
		Jim Harshman
		Tom Shirley
		Chris Rowe
		Ron Palmer

		In admiration:
		George Leigh Mallory
		A. F. Mummery
		H. W. 'Bill' Tilman
		Walter Starr, Jr.
		Hermann Buhl
		Jim Baldwin
		Norman Clyde
		Larry Williams
		Don Jensen
		Don Sheldon
		Ian Clough
		Dougal Haston
		Don Whillans
		Gary Ullin
		Marty Hoey
		John Cunningham
		Bill March
		Naomi Uemura
		Sheridan Anderson
		Dave Johnston
		Leigh Ortenburger
		P. S. Lovejoy
		Nanda Devi Unsoeld
		Joe Tasker
		Peter Boardman
		Mick Burke
		Ome Daiber

Lord, guard and guide the men who fly
Through the great spaces in the sky.
Be with them always in the air
In darkening storm or sunlight fair.
Oh hear us when we lift our prayer
Or hold in peril in the air.  Amen.

               HIGH FLIGHT
         by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
 
 Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
 Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
 Of sun-split clouds--and done a thousand things
 You have not dreamed of--wheeled and soared and sung
 High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
 I've chased the shouting wind along and flung
 My eager craft through footless halls of air
 Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
 I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
 Where never lark, or even eagle flew
 And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
 The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
 Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

TABLE OF CONTENTS of this chain:

16/ Morbid backcountry		<* THIS PANEL *>
17/ Information about bears
18/ Poison ivy, frequently ask, under question
19/ Lyme disease, frequently ask, under question
20/ "Telling questions" backcountry Turing test (under construction)
21/ AMS
22/ Words from Foreman and Hayduke
23/ A bit of song (like camp songs)
24/ What is natural?
25/ A romantic notion of high-tech employment
26/ Other news groups of related interest, networking
27/ Films/cinema references
28/ References (written)
1/ DISCLAIMER
2/ Ethics
3/ Learning I
4/ learning II (lists, "Ten Essentials," Chouinard comments)
5/ Summary of past topics
6/ Non-wisdom: fire-arms topic circular discussion
7/ Learning (3)
8/ Fletcher's Law of Inverse Appreciation and advice
9/ Water Filter wisdom
10/ Words from Rachel Carson
11/ Snake bite
12/ Netiquette
13/ Questions on conditions and travel
14/ Dedication to Aldo Leopold
15/ Leopold's lot.

From: tamada@cheshire.oxy.edu (Michael K. Tamada)
Subject: Yet More Cougar Attack Statistics, and Dog Statistics Too

     The LA Times this Sunday had a feature article on cougars/mountain 
lions/pumas.  According to the article, there have been 11 deaths caused
by cougars in the US and Canada over the past 100 years.  This is compared
to 12 deaths by lightning per year and 40 deaths by bee sting per year.
     On the other hand, the rate of human/cougar interactions has been
rising in recent years -- partly because housing keeps getting built
in their habitat, but also because cougar populations have been 
recovering in several areas (e.g. a cougar was spotted in Nebraska for
the first time in several decades).
     The article also had some statistics on pet dog/cougar interactions
around some town, Boulder I think.  There have been 37 such "interactions"
in the past x years, and as the author of the article put it, "so far
the score is cougars 15, dogs 0."

--Mike Tamada
  Occidental College
  tamada@oxy.edu

Newsgroups: rec.backcountry