Lessons Learned: Hypothermia and Following the Wrong People

What would you do if you realized that you had been following a leader confidently leading you in the wrong direction?

In this article, I'm going to be discussing a challenging situation I was put in, and through hindsight's lens, I'll explore choices I could have made and offer insights into how I could have navigated the differently.

The Story

It was the summer of 2009, I was 14 years old. My Boy Scout leaders had decided to organize a trip for the Eagle Scouts in my troop. Along with the Eagle Scouts, their fathers and older brothers were also welcome to come. We went to Shoshone Lake in Wyoming. Shoshone Lake is the largest lake in the lower 48 states that cannot be reached by road. To get there our group went to Lewis Lake and canoed through it to get to Lewis River. We tied all of the canoes together and had people from our group hold the rope on both sides of the river and pull the canoes up the river.

Pulling the canoes up the river was a little easier said than done. Large trees had fallen into the river on both sides due to a forest fire some years before, so we had to hurdle those pretty much the whole way up. Once we got up to the Shoshone Lake we separated into groups by which campsite we would be going to. Due to local restrictions, we could only have so many people at each campsite, I believe the number was somewhere around 8 people. Along with that, we were not allowed to make any campfire, but that will come up again a little later.

When we started canoeing the wind had started to pick up and Lake Shoshone is big enough to start getting choppy when the wind starts blowing. I was in the Canoe with 2 other people, a father and his son who was younger than me and needed some extra strength. On the way across the lake I was in the back steering, we were following one of our scout leaders, let's call him Leader Granite. Leader Granite had assured us that he knew where he was going and he lead us confidently across the lake that he had never been to before. We ended up stopping at a spot (see Figure 2) to regroup. There it was revealed that Leader Granite did not know where he was going and another one of the leaders showed him a map saying where he should be but nothing about where the people in my canoe should be. A ranger came by and revealed to us that the people in my canoe went farther than we needed to and that we actually needed to go back across the lake nearly to where we were before (see Figure 3).

The group that we had stopped with packed up their stuff and left for their respective campgrounds, leaving the people in my canoe with 1 extra person making that 4 people in our canoe, and just with a vague direction of where we were heading. We started heading to the other side of the lake but now the waves were much larger than they were before. The adult in our canoe was in the back steering this time, however it became apparent quickly that he did not understand that you need to change your direction to cut through the waves diagonally rather than be parallel to the waves putting our canoe right in the trough of the waves. When we were in the worst spot you could be, a large wave capsized our canoe.

We attempted to get the water out of our canoe and back up, but the waves were so big that every time we got the water out another wave came and filled it up, so we slowly made our way back to shore (see figure 4). We swam while holding on the sides of our canoe pulling it along until we reached a more shallow part of the lake and walked our canoe to shore. By the time we got out of the lake, we had all been in the water for over half an hour. We all had hypothermia, I remember feeling like some stagnant water near shore was a way to warm up. The adult in our canoe decided to leave us 13/14-year-olds and run to where our camp should be, and get our parents that were there so we could get to a safe place.

A ranger found us, waited with us till our families came, and brought us to our designated campground. When our families came and got us the ranger followed us to our campground and seemingly waited around just to make sure we weren't going to light a fire to get warm around as it was against regulations and we would get fined if we had. We were allowed to light a canister stove which isn't much heat but by morning the hypothermia had worn off and we continued our adventures.

What Could I Have done Differently

First thing I could have done differently is have where I was going marked on a map, preferably a physical map. Our larger group should have divided themselves up into groups divided up by each campground assignment rather than following 1 leader who in reality does not know where they are heading either.

The biggest change I would have made has to do with the best way to warm up someone with hypothermia. Even if you can't light a campfire but you can light a canister stove if you boil some water and put it into a Nalgene bottle, close it up tight, and put it into the bottom of a dry sleeping bag with someone who is hypothermic. You can warm that person up quickly and safely by adding just that little bit of extra heat to their sleeping bag.

I was put into an unfortunate situation and it felt like it just kept on getting worse and worse. If you're camping in a large group make sure that everyone is watched out for and knows where they're going and that they have the skills to get there. Give members of your camping group a way to communicate with each other in case of emergencies and get a good understanding of what to do if a medical emergency occurs.

After this event, I really did have a good rest of trip. One side of Shoshone lake butts up against the back side of Yellowstone Park and you can see many geysers and hot pots up close without needing to deal with large crowds or fences. I would recommend visiting this lake if you get the chance it is a great time.