Inchworms Journal during 26 days lost...newest report

[Alligator]

Gerry had hiked almost half the trail. It'd be a good bet that her body fat percentage was low, available reserves low, and if she wandered around lost, her caloric needs would have been high. Bushwhacking is hard work.

[tdoczi]

If a person is out of water and out of food the body does not have the fuel it needs to stay warm. Tents and sleeping bags don't produce heat. They slow the body's loss of heat to the environment. At some point, if the body is not taking in enough calories, internal reserves will deplete and there won't be enough energy to stay warm.

i could be misreading, but that sort of implies it is possible to die of hypothermia in basically any temperature less than 98 degrees or so. is it? lacking sufficient reserves to produce heat could you die of hypothermia if it is, i dunno, lets say 72 degrees out? i've never heard of it, but i suppose its possible. i do think your body would shut down in other ways way before it came to that though. i feel like your body produces its heat, in part, as a natural biproduct of all the things it does while being alive, not simply for the sake of producing heat. i would think a drastic lack of heat production would indicate that many critical body functions have already shut down and that that would be a much bigger issue than the residual loss of body heat.

[Alligator]

People have died of hypothermia in the summer. Rain is often involved, plus people don't prepare as well in the summer clothing-wise.

The body protects the core when hypothermic, internal organs are more important than limbs, so the limbs get reduced blood flow. Yes, heat is a by product but also produced as needed. Shivering is the body attempting to create warmth.

Dehydration exacerbates hypothermia. I'm not as familiar with how dehydration kills. I am familiar with hypothermia issues as that one kills first so I try to pay attention to articles about it. It's not clear which may have been the primary cause in this case.

[egilbe]

People have died of hypothermia in the summer. Rain is often involved, plus people don't prepare as well in the summer clothing-wise.

The body protects the core when hypothermic, internal organs are more important than limbs, so the limbs get reduced blood flow. Yes, heat is a by product but also produced as needed. Shivering is the body attempting to create warmth.

Dehydration exacerbates hypothermia. I'm not as familiar with how dehydration kills. I am familiar with hypothermia issues as that one kills first so I try to pay attention to articles about it. It's not clear which may have been the primary cause in this case.

Agree. Hypothermia is a drastic reduction of body temperature. Wet and wind will chill you faster than you can create warmth by burning calories. Once your core temp drops below a certain point, it is no longer able to burn calories to keep warm. You are still living, but your odds of surviving are pretty slim without an outside heat source.

[Just Bill]

Hypothermia does very strange things to people. And IMO is most dangerous at temps from 30-60* as most people don't have that problem in mind. Once you cross a certain threshold it is very difficult if not impossible to self correct.

Not that I followed this much, but it would explain the distance from the trail and otherwise uncharacteristic behavior.

http://www.livescience.com/41730-hyp...ndressing.html

[biscotti]

Always lots of speculation but there is a blog written by a person up in Maine about finding Inchworm. There is a comment from someone (Steve) who lives near where she was found. Says he is friends with some of the wardens involved with the search. And he says this "From what I have read and heard from them she got off the main trail and fell some distance down a high rock formation". Also says she 'broke an ankle or something like that'. If true it could explain a lot about her physical condition and ability to keep moving.

http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum6/HTML/114037.html

[vamelungeon]

I've been overheated to the point that I threw up, and I've been extremely cold, and I've been dehydrated and in each case I wasn't thinking clearly. We are pretty delicate mechanisms, though it's hard for the young to understand that at times. It really doesn't take much to throw our bodies out of whack, and our minds along with that. I really don't have any problem understanding the press release. It doesn't take broken bones, all it takes is a couple of hours of dehydration, a little time soaking wet with a wind blowing or perhaps an unexpected drop in blood sugar and you become disoriented. Each one of us can become confused or disoriented pretty rapidly, much more quickly than we would care to admit.

[MuddyWaters]

Ive been confuzzled by dehydration myself.
When you start doubting your map....stop....its not the map.

[Starfly]

Good thoughts on hypothermia guys. Its certainly something to watch out for and could have been a factor with Inchworm in the latter stages of her ordeal. The day she went missing was bright and warm. It seems some other event or mistake caused her to get off trail first. No doubt after that bigger issues including hypothermia began to arise. Interesting stuff from the Fierro forum. There aren't any real cliff like spots at her site, but plenty of little bluffs and steep hills that anyone could break something on so could be. If she did take a spill she could have had a lot of other soft tissue injuries that I don't think hard tissue would tell a pathologist but I dunno. I would venture a guess Steve heard speculation from his friends rather than something conclusive. Otherwise, I strongly feel a known injury confirmed by a doctor would have made it into the official report.

[Driver8]

The body protects the core when hypothermic, internal organs are more important than limbs, so the limbs get reduced blood flow. Yes, heat is a by product but also produced as needed. Shivering is the body attempting to create warmth.

This. The body needs to be within a certain temperature range for major bodily functions and for metabolism to continue. A bit of a chicken, egg thing, as metabolism is needed to maintain temperature and temperature is needed to maintain metabolism.

[tdoczi]

People have died of hypothermia in the summer. Rain is often involved, plus people don't prepare as well in the summer clothing-wise.

The body protects the core when hypothermic, internal organs are more important than limbs, so the limbs get reduced blood flow. Yes, heat is a by product but also produced as needed. Shivering is the body attempting to create warmth.

Dehydration exacerbates hypothermia. I'm not as familiar with how dehydration kills. I am familiar with hypothermia issues as that one kills first so I try to pay attention to articles about it. It's not clear which may have been the primary cause in this case.

isnt hypothermia in summer usually in conditions like 55 degrees and windy and rainy? i'd be curious to hear of cases of people dying of hypothermia in warmer conditions (like lets say above 65 degrees), even with rain involved. i guess i could see how a prolonged but brief amount of exposure (such as it rained and dropped to 50 degrees overnight) could start a downward spiral that cant be recovered from even if the temp warms back up to 80 the next day. hmm, interesting stuff.

[Pedaling Fool]

Bottom line, we'll never know. Alligator's scenario makes a lot of sense, but so do other scenarios. To argue which one is more likely is useless in my mind, because the simple answer is we don't know. When we try and explain it with the most likely scenario I think over time we come to accept that as fact. I rather just know that I don't know.

[Tuckahoe]

One writer's experience developing hypothermia as the result of a summer Virginia thunderstorm -- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/cap..._the_thun.html

A little about hypothermia -- http://www.theguardian.com/education...search.science

Active Times -- http://www.theactivetimes.com/summer...ing-unexpected

As mentioned in the Active Times artticle, Karen Sykes died as a result of hypothermia on a June dayhike -- http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...o-hypothermia/

[4eyedbuzzard]

...The day she went missing was bright and warm...

Not so. It rained somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 inch on the 22nd, the last day she was seen alive by two other hikers at Poplar Lean-to.

[tdoczi]

Bottom line, we'll never know. Alligator's scenario makes a lot of sense, but so do other scenarios. To argue which one is more likely is useless in my mind, because the simple answer is we don't know. When we try and explain it with the most likely scenario I think over time we come to accept that as fact. I rather just know that I don't know.

i think at this point its more about analyzing all of the possible mistakes and their likelihood of occurrence so as to maybe learn something and not repeat it.

to me, in all things, not just hiking, i am interested in things that are likely, or probable to occur, and tend to not worry about things that are just possible, as pretty much anything is possible and worrying about it all would be paralyzing. so for in the case of the discussion of hypothermia, is experiencing it during a period of time when the average temperature is say 72 degrees (sometimes higher, sometimes lower) really a possibility, a remote possibility, something very common, something highly unlikely, something not possible at all? these are not trivial questions.

[tdoczi]

One writer's experience developing hypothermia as the result of a summer Virginia thunderstorm -- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/cap..._the_thun.html

A little about hypothermia -- http://www.theguardian.com/education...search.science

Active Times -- http://www.theactivetimes.com/summer...ing-unexpected

As mentioned in the Active Times artticle, Karen Sykes died as a result of hypothermia on a June dayhike -- http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...o-hypothermia/

i think what the conditions are is more important than the time of year. can conditions that would cause hypothermia occur in the mountains at potentially any time of year? yes. my wondering is more to the point is what specific conditions are the upper threshold at which hypothermia can occur, regardless of the time of year this happens.

[Thorfinn]

I agree that we need to learn everything possible about this event to reduce the chances of it happening again. I friend of mine has a camp in that area. He talked to a forester who said that Geri was diabetic. I hadn't heard that before. Do we know if it is true?

[Starfly]

Buzzard, its been a while since I've gone over the basic facts but Monday the 22ond was a a beautiful day and Tuesday the 23rd is when it poured. Several sources say "sunny and seasonable all day Monday." Not sure about Monday night. It rained steady into Wednesday. Burden of proof is on you so you'll have to take the time to go back 2 years and 3 months to correct me if I'm wrong. My my we get caught up in some of these ideas. Its bad enough she got lost on a strikingly simple section of trail. Now a well equipped woman supposedly suffered from hypothermia while strenuously descending a hiking trail on a 50-60 degree and rising morning...wearing at least two layers including a fleece. Pretty soon the rattlesnake and quicksand folks are going to chime in.

[Water Rat]

i think at this point its more about analyzing all of the possible mistakes and their likelihood of occurrence so as to maybe learn something and not repeat it.

to me, in all things, not just hiking, i am interested in things that are likely, or probable to occur, and tend to not worry about things that are just possible, as pretty much anything is possible and worrying about it all would be paralyzing. so for in the case of the discussion of hypothermia, is experiencing it during a period of time when the average temperature is say 72 degrees (sometimes higher, sometimes lower) really a possibility, a remote possibility, something very common, something highly unlikely, something not possible at all? these are not trivial questions.

You are right - These are not trivial questions to be asking.

In my WFR class we learned that hypothermia can happen on a 70° degrees F. day. This was stressed because some people in the class laughed at the idea. It might be sunny out, but all you need is the combination of wind, water/getting wet, and your core temperature dropping for hypothermia to occur. As long as conditions are present for hypothermia to occur, there is always the possibility of death from hypothermia. Most of the time we are able to stop the course of hypothermia and reverse it, but it all depends on catching it in time.

Anyone can get hypothermia – Young people, older people, people with metabolic disorders, people with other medical conditions, and people on certain medications are at higher risk of getting this life threatening condition. Everyone in their lifetime has experienced being cold and feeling of being chilled. We get goose bumps, we shiver, our limbs ache and we feel a little sleepy. Most of the time a little jumping in place to get the blood moving, getting into dry clothing/sleeping bag, eating something, or a warm drink is all it takes to get warmed up. Hypothermia is more than that and can be fatal.

Hypothermia is a sudden and profound cooling of the temperature in the core of your body (head & torso) to below 96° degrees F (35.5° degrees C.). Although this 2-1/2° degree F. drop from a healthy normal 98.6° degrees F. seems slight, it can have a crippling effect to the body to the point where your body ceases to function normally. Continued cooling can result in an irregular heartbeat, which can lead to death. In addition, you will steadily (or quickly) become more and more disoriented during this process.

In truth, we will never know if Gerry became lost, or if she became disoriented due to a medical condition (hypothermia, heart issue, stroke, diabetes, aneurysm, etc). We will never learn the exact cause of death – Especially since there were probably many factors that just happened to occur at one time, or a stream of events occurred. Either way, the outcome is the same. There is much to be learned from this, but we will never get the answer to “what happened.” Gerry is the only one who might possibly have had the answer and even she might not have been able to tell us. What can we learn from this since we will never know what factor/combination of factors lead to Gerry’s death?

*Familiarize yourself with the area you are going to be hiking. Know how to read a map and compass and use them. GPS, phones, other devices… They are all nice to have, but if they lose power they are useless.

*If you take any medications – Know that they can impact how your body functions.

*If you have any known medical conditions, keep tabs on how you are feeling and deal with it before things get to the point where you cannot care for yourself.

*Stay hydrated – Any dehydration (if you start to feel thirsty, your body is already becoming dehydrated) can lead to bigger issues happening. How many times have we all said “I only have a few more miles, I’ll stop and drink when I get there…”? Doesn’t matter if water is nearby - If you cannot get to it and it is not in your body, you will not be hydrated.

*If you start to feel like you are lost. Stop and take a look at the map. Take stock of your surroundings – Do you remember when you were last on the trail/last on your chosen path? Were there any landmarks that stand out in your mind? If you feel like you are going to panic, have a snack/drink and calm yourself. A level head will be the quickest way out of your situation. If it is close to dark and conditions are not optimal (rain/snow, etc) for finding the trail that night, then making camp might be a good decision. The ability to make choices in these situations gives you some control of how lost you are/how lost you become. After a night of rest, you might find the trail was closer than you thought. The main thing is that you did not become more lost in the meantime.

*If you are cold/shivering put on a layer, or get out of your wet clothes. Stopping hypothermia from happening is always a good thing.

[Mfrenchy]

Biscotti, I read the link, seemsike either the person heard info from the fire wardens that wasn't released or one of the fire wardens were just speculating about what could have happened.

Only way to know would be to ask that fire wardens.