[pct-l] ALERT......... hiker suffecates in bivy sack

[Tortoise]

I've heard reports of other people suffocating in similar circumstances. 
One women covered herself with a tarp in freezing weather with 
precipitation. During the night while she slept, ice formed around the 
entire edge sealing the tarp to the ground and she suffocated. So there 
is a warning in this in using any type of shelter.

Always make sure you have some ventilation that won't freeze or snow shut.

----------
Tortoise

<> He who finishes last, wins! <>

I switched to Mac OSX rather than fight Windows
Using Mozilla Thunderbird  http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

Reinhold Metzger wrote:
> It appears that suffocating in a none breathable shelters is not limited to
> bivy sacks.
> I have bin informed that a woman, using a none breathable tyvec tarp
> suffocated after wrapping herself in the tyvev tarp when it started snowing.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Reinhold Metzger
> To: pct-l at mailman.backcountry.net ; Hiker97 at aol.com ; Deems ; Monte Dodge ;
> Bighummel at aol.com ; John Stamstad ; Al Shaver ; Rex Spaith ; mat masterson
> Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 10:40 PM
> Subject: ALERT......... hiker suffecates in bivy sack
> 
> 
> ATTENTION  ALL  BIVY  SACK  OWNERS!!!
> On my recent JMT marathon attempt I climbed Mt. Langley ( a fourteener )as
> part of my acclimation.
> I started talking to a hiker who was taking, what seemed to me, an excessive
> number of photographs.
> When I inquired why he was taking so many photographs, he stated he was
> doing a documentary to his best friend.
> Upon further inquiry he revealed to me that his best friend and hiking
> companion died on at mountaineering expedition. They found him dead in his
> bivy sack the next morning. The autopsy revealed  suffocation as the cause
> of death. His bivy was made from none breathable material and zipped al the
> way shut without a vent. The conclusion was he suffocated in his bivy
> because of lack of ventilation.
> The pre trial investigation revealed  that there where other similar prior
> problems with that particular bivy sack. I failed to get the manufacturers
> name and model of the bivy.
> 
> Do not let this happen to you.  I f your bivy is made from none breathable
> material and does not have
> a vent, install a vent.
> 
> JMT Reinhold
> 
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