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Show D September 19, 2002 mi WW m MM Ml B- - (Si ITT Outdoor adventure n high Uintas Challenges class by Airman Mlcah Garbarino Hilltop Times staff Survive To remain alive or in existence. 2. To persist through. - Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. -- j f basis in the world we live in, with all of Surviving on a ftbe amenities of modern living close at hand, is something that Bost of us find easy. But, if thrust into a situation where we had to ;survive in the wilderness, we would have no clue of how to stay day-to-d- long enough to be rescued or find our way back to civilization. j To teach these survival skills, Chris Breck, the Outdoor Adventure Program manager at Outdoor Recreation here, and 2nd JL Pete Hudlow, organized a trip into the Uinta Mountains. They graciously allowed me to tag along. Before becoming commissioned, Hudlow, a section commander at the 388th Component Maintenance Squadron, was a survival instructor at Fairchild AFB, Wash., for years. Hudlow heard stories of people who would get lost only miles from civilization and die, because of lack of preparation and failing to apply common sense to the situation and use available resources. Before we left, we attended two classes at outdoor recreation, where Hudlow and Breck outlined our trip, and pointed out the dangers of the activities, and the area we were going to. The biggest diings we would have to worry about were altitude sickness, hypothermia, dehydration and foot problems. The classes included the basics of navigating with a map and compass, and also helped us see what we specifically needed to survive in the wilderness and how food, water, shelter and fire to obtain them in a limited resource environment Water is most important. A healthy human body can survive three weeks without food, and only 72 hours maximum without water. Once we got to the mountains, we knew there would be no clean tap water. In preparation, we had filters, and purifacation tablets to treat the water. "Remember, if you're stranded, you have your whole life to make it through this situation unless you kill yourself. So slow down, evaluate the situation and make a plan," said Hudlow during the class. There would be several areas that Hudlow and Breck would and 'grade for a competition; triangulation, navigation, knives that would be awarded belter building. Breck had two Rafter the competition. 'f While the trip normally requires a minimum of 10 people, our group had six CoL Seb Romano, 75th Air Base Wing commander, Col. Charles Williams, 75th Medical Group Commander, Maj. Jay Gourley, an intelligence officer with the 388th Operations Support SquadronIntelligence; Capt Dave Butterfield, an ICBM guidance engineer with the ICBM Systems Program Office; John Moore, 3 facilities engineering technician with the ICBM SPO; and me. a iWe packed up our backpacks, piled into a truck, and headed up to the mountains on Sep. 12, and made our base camp at Mirror Lake, northeast of Kamas, by 6:40 p.m. We unloaded and hiked into the campground in a light rain. Our first priority was to set up our camp and get a fire going. For the class, we all brought tents. In most cases in the wilderness, we would have a tent, or something to keep us out of the dements. But, as the class progressed we also learned how to make a shelter in the woods, just in case we ever found ourselves in a survival situation. After dark, it started to get cold. We stayed up talking for a little while, and before we all headed for our tents, Hudlow cautioned us to watch ourselves for the signs of hypothermia because the nighttime temperature was in the 30s. ' 4 After breakfast on Friday morning, we all walked down to the like to get water. Breck, Williams, Moore and Romano all had water purification filters. We took turns pumping and holding the containers until we had enough water for the day. On the hike back up if the campsite, the fact that we were at 10,200 feet really hit home. J think we were all short of breath. 4 The rest of the day, Hudlow taught us the basics of navigating ith a map and compass. We learned how to triangulate our position on a map by identifying prominent land features, and using our compass to get the proper headings. We all navigated about 1 12 kilometers through the woods to two different survey mark-salive n j fv .. ?' view of Mirror Lake, near Kamas, from the top of Bald Mountain. Firewood wasn't In short supply during the trip. Left, Butterfield holds a log while Gourley, left, and Moore use a chain-sacompact muscle-powere- d to cut It At Pass Lake Friday, Hudlow, below, takes a compass reading off of Bald Mountain to the south In order to plot a course to the next benchmark we were looking for. A 1 " ' 1 fire-starti- Ka-B- ar m 1 0- fj$ 7i Photos by Airman Mlcah Garbarino Members of the Wilderness Survival Class surround a benchmark, from left, Col. Charles Williams, Col. Seb Romano, Ma. Jay Gourley, John Moore, Capt Dave Butterfield, and, below, 2nd LL Pete Hudlow. ers. We got back to the campsite around 2:30 and began collecting more firewood. We had two compact chainsaws and we used them to cut up the dead trees we found laying around. Just as we saw rain coming quickly from the southeast over Bald Mountain, Hudlow decided it would be a good time to show us how to use a parachute as a shelter. Working together, and using a pole as a center support, we tied B See Adventure, page 10 rr r '. r ' Y r rI ,i 1 vf 4 w . ... n tit St ft u Overturning rocks, Romano digs for worms to use as ftsh bait before fishing In Mirror Lake Friday night - - III CO?Y . Breck gets the hook out of an albino trout that Williams caught In Mirror Lake. vj With Hudlow's help, the group rigged this parachute to shelter the camp from the weekend. the rain and weather during |