15 and 16 year old going camping alone

**ikemouser** · 02-09-2010, 14:50

Some of the best trips i had were when i was 15-16 with friends. I say go, enjoy that time you have with your friend you will remember it forever. HOWEVER! You must know how to read a topo map and compass if you do not know the area you are going. ALso you must have proper insulation. i'll make a list:

1. If your staying in a hammock you need an topquilt and a underquilt (or a pad-check r value)
-these need to be rated down to freezing or better depending on what your gonna encountre

2. You need to have waterproof rain clothes (including pants)

3. You need to print off topo maps of the area you are going and obtain regular trail maps if availible (learn how to use a compass-tons of videos on youtube)

4. leave a copy of where your going with someone

5. bring enough food(do some research, see whiteblaze, bpl, hf)

6. Bring enough socks so you have dry ones at night to wear or are your feet gonna freeze and prevent you from sleeping(and warm socks-wool or better)

7. Dont pack heavy

8. Allow extra time in case it doesnt go as planned

**rankinesoccer** · 02-09-2010, 18:30

and I got the tickets for free from a friend!!!

**lori** · 02-09-2010, 18:48

You're going to get to Olympic... how?

And no one's mentioning the fog. It's a Pacific Northwest rain forest - different gear, different skill set. How are you going to handle the snow? It falls year round. What about glaciers, gonna convince us you know what to do about those?

What are you going to do if the rangers issuing the permit ask about your age?

**Trooper** · 02-09-2010, 19:26

Originally Posted by lori

What about glaciers, gonna convince us you know what to do about those?

I don't know what to do about glaciers, and would like to learn. I don't want to hijack this thread, but could you give me a hint about what dangers and complications they bring?

I also don't want to offend or seem flippant, but I hear that glaciers don't move too fast, so I'm guessing getting run over by one isn't something to worry about.

**lori** · 02-09-2010, 19:29

Dude, if the owner of this forum does not figure out how to report you and notify your parents, I will.

YOU DO NOT GO ALONE. You don't even understand the real danger of a glacier.

NO MORE INFO for you.

**poker88** · 02-09-2010, 20:02

lori, trooper is not the OP (rankinesoccer is the OP), I think trooper was just asking a question that he's really curious about. i've never been around glaciers either and I'd love to hear more about them.

**lori** · 02-09-2010, 20:09

Okay, my mistake on who's who.. but the OP is in Phoenix AZ, his destination is in WA, and I will still hold firm on the notion that providing information to further the goal of two minors crossing more than a thousand miles across state lines into conditions wildly different from those in their home state is a BAD BAD IDEA. If the kids are killed falling into an ice crevasse, eaten by cougars, die of hypothermia, or just starve to death because they didn't store food properly and it was eaten by bears or goats - do you really want any liability for that? Do you want the forum to bear any liability if the kid's computer history is searched?

OKAY. Re-read the whole thing - I missed the little post from the OP scrolling through. He is talking to his parents, good - but I think that the parents better be spending some quality time on the Olympic NP website and giving the kids a set route that does not include ice. And someone needs to go over the food storage regs and get them a solution for that. And, I'd still hope there would be an adult presence(s) in the same state as the kids, at the very least.

Ramping down from my liability radar stance now...

**lori** · 02-09-2010, 20:20

To answer the question about glaciers... you go to mountaineering school! Because using an ice axe to self arrest takes practice, as do other snow/ice tactics like the glissade and walking in crampons without shredding your nice two hundred dollar Goretex pants and gaiters. And on larger glaciers, you become very good at spotting large cracks in the ice that you might fall into. Or you spend the rest of your very cold short life at the bottom of one....

Or you stay the heck off the glacier. That's quite a lot cheaper.

**Trooper** · 02-09-2010, 20:33

Again, I didn't intend to cause such a reaction, as I was only attempting to bring some levity to the topic while learning. I was truly asking because I am curious and recalled a interesting scene from The Mountain.

My mistake for asking about glaciers, which is obviously off-topic on a hammock forum. Mea Culpa, Mea maxima culpa.

**lori** · 02-09-2010, 20:47

Well, the topic of the thread isn't hammock related either...

I do have a sticky panic button when it comes to minors, because in my field I carry a whole lot of liability insurance for when I work with them. And on another forum I frequent, we will get posts from young people who really go all Christopher McCandless on their plans, that is, not really research more than asking people and then just go out into some unknown place to Have An Adventure. And in addition, I joined SAR and know how upside down people think when they are in "survival mode," having begun to read up on the psychology of survival... So perhaps I am at a disadvantage when it comes to attempting to not take this sort of thing too seriously.

Wherever the OP and his friend end up, I hope they have a ton of fun. I wish I were that age again. There was a lot we did that I'd really suffer for now, if I tried.