American Survival Guide – October 2019

[ASGMAG.COM] AMERICAN SURVIVAL GUIDE 49

PREPARE

FOR THE

KILLER

COLD

WINTER IS NO TIME TO BE

WITHOUT A PLAN

BY CHRISTOPHER NYERGES

F

or many years, I led Saturday

hiking classes into various wild

areas through the local college.

One Saturday in December, I

was leading one of these classes

in the mountains of the Angeles National

Forest. We had hiked several miles up a trail

to the approximately 3,000-foot level to

our destination, Echo Mountain, the site of a

tavern and hotel many decades earlier; it was

now all ruins.

We spent a little time wandering around the

sprawling mountaintop ruins and then created

a small fire in front of an old still-standing

fireplace. It was challenging to make even a

small fire, because rain had been falling for

the previous few days. The day was windy, and

there was old snow on the ground.

We collected dry pine needles and the dead

leaves from some of the various conifers that

had been planted there decades earlier. We

even added pieces of sandwich wrappers and

other odd bits of paper in order to get the fire

going and keep it going. Everyone gathered

closely together to warm up on the cold

day. Our fire was never that large, but it was

enough to heat some soup and to warm the

fireplace stones just enough to radiate heat

for our group of a dozen or so who all huddled

very close to it.

Finally, after we’d all had some hot tea or

soup, we packed up, and it was just in time. It

had been very cold, and as we watched, the

very light rain was freezing before it hit the

ground — it was turning to snow. It steadily

grew heavier, as we all donned our packs and

headed toward the trail back home.

As we began walking, eager to get back down

the trail and out of the snow, a woman and

about 10 young girls appeared out of the light

snowy mist, like an apparition. I wondered

where they’d come from.

“Do you have any matches?” the woman

asked, with great expectation apparent in her

voice. She explained that it was their second

day of a five-day campout with her Girl Scouts,

and that she’d used up all her book matches

the previous day.

“Really?” I said, incredulously. I thought to

myself, “You came up here with all these girls

in the snow for five days in the winter and all

you brought were book matches?”

It was hard to contain myself. I mean, it’s

one thing to just leave home without the