Stressed out on Devils Tower

Recently, while battling a bout with illness I had an epiphany. I was laying in bed, my head was completely blocked up.

Suddenly I felt as if I was suffocating and claustrophobia kicked into high gear. My instinct told me to jump out of bed, flick on the light switch and wrap myself in that warm security blanket of light. Going against my urge to give into panic I decided to lie there, take slow deep breaths, and repeat “fight the panic” to myself. It worked, I felt relaxed and able to breathe again.

The reason I bring this up is because panic is something that comes up quite often in the outdoor world. whether you find yourself lost in the woods, or on the sharp end of a climbing rope. The only difference is that giving into panic in these situations might get you killed.

Taking a moment to assess your situation is probably the single most important thing to do when you feel yourself slip into panic. Many times a simple solution to your dilema exists, but on the contrary many times there is no simple way out, and that is why it is vital to have a calm clear head. I for one can tell you that panic and rational thinking do not coexist.

If you follow my posts regularly you probably remember that in August of last year I climbed Devils Tower. During the decent our party found ourselves in a precarious situation. With high winds due to a storm cell moving in, we were in constant danger of being battered around, and vocal communication became all but impossible. Furthermore, our ropes became stuck in a crack system and it begane to rain, Oh and we were all dehydrated.

I bring all this up, because this is a situation where panic would have been absolutely deadly. In a panicked state of mind, who knows what foolish stuff would have been attempted out of dismay. Though we were all in a heightened state of excitement over the issue, we all stayed relatively calm. The most important part was that we did not panic.

Keep in mind the next time you find yourself in a sticky situation to triple check everything, be positive, and when you feel yourself slipping into that deadly panic, just breathe and repeat after me: “fight the panic”.