Surviving the Trail: Five Essential Skills to Prepare Every Hiker for Adventure’s Most Common Perils

Equip yourself with the knowledge to avoid common hiking hazards and stay safe on the trail

The statistics are difficult to believe, but every week more than ten hikers die and at least another two hundred require rescue in North America, amounting to more than 500 lives lost and more than 10,000 people rescued every year. Analysis reveals they span the full spectrum of trail experience. The silver lining among this alarming data reveals that most hiker deaths and rescues come from just a handful of preventable causes. This presents an opportunity for this book to make a significant impact. Despite a number of articles published over the years in the attempt to raise trail-goers’ awareness of this issue, the data remain unchanged. Every week, hundreds continue to fight to survive among avoidable circumstances while awaiting overwhelmed and understaffed wilderness rescue teams.

The most common reasons for hiker death and rescue are falling, drowning, dehydration, heat injury, hypothermia, and a lost hiker. Many hikers venture out inadequately prepared, possess a limited skill set, and exhibit poor decision-making when problems arise. That’s what Dr. Scanlon’s Surviving the Trail is intended to prevent and—if something untoward happens—ameliorate.

 

Rob Scanlon, M.D. is Board Certified in Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care (ICU medicine) and actively in practice for over 20 years. He began his journey as a hiker/backpacker in 2002 to reduce the stress of work life. Throughout his clinical career he has followed his passion for patient education in his specialty to improve outcomes and longevity for his patients with underlying lung disease.

He joined the Wilderness Medicine Society (WMS) in 2018 through his love for the outdoors and medicine and to pursue his growing desire to impact the staggering rate of hiker death and rescue. Along with attending conferences, he has been accepted as a fellowship candidate of the WMS.

In 2018 Dr. Rob established Medical Media Consulting to engage with creators of visual, scripted entertainment on the accuracy of medical content of their projects and has developed relationships within the entertainment community. Prior to writing this manuscript he was working with professionals in the entertainment industry on a reality television show relating to this project.

He has an Instagram account @dr_robscanlon with over 54,000 followers where you can see him on hikes at Mt. Kilimanjaro, The Appalachian Trail, Canyonlands in Utah and on other wonderful excursions.