"Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

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YMix
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"Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by YMix »

Adventurer who wanted to live like Bear Grylls in Scottish wilderness for a year found dead in less than a month

A man found dead in a remote mountain hut was an adventurer who had planned a year-long Bear Grylls-style survival challenge in the Scottish wilderness.

David Austin, 29, from Derby, was found dead in a 'bothy' by a track worker near Corrour, a remote railway station in Highland Perthshire, on December 31 at 9.50am.

His body is believed to have been lying there for several weeks when it was discovered.

A post-mortem found there were no suspicious circumstances behind his death, which is understood to have been as a result of hypothermia.

In November, Mr Austin had told his family he was heading north to live rough off the land - something for which survival expert Bear Grylls has become famous.

He is believed to have attended several courses in outdoor survival and bushcraft skills over the past couple of years in order to realise his dream, despite being urged by family and friends to reconsider his plans.

It is thought Mr Austin had not even taken a mobile phone with him, leaving him entirely at the mercy of the harsh winter.

A number of personal possessions including a knife and a daily journal were found next to his body.

Last night, his mother spoke of her grief after learning her son's fate.

She said: 'He loved his survival, climbing and that sort of training. I knew what he was going to do but I did not expect this.

'I'm distraught, I can't believe it. You don't expect this and I don't know how to deal with it.

'I'm too distraught to talk about it - there's someone coming tomorrow to sort everything out, but I don't know if I'll ever want to talk about it.'

Police have been trying to piece together Mr Austin's last known movements.

After setting off from Derby, he is thought to have travelled to Glasgow and then on to Corrour, on the West Highland Line, which is the UK's highest mainline station.

He is then believed to have spent his 29th birthday on December 3 alone outdoors, in the first heavy snowfall of the season and may have been heading towards the next railway station at Rannoch when he got into difficulties.

A hostel employee at the Loch Ossian SYHA hostel on Rannoch Moor said: 'He didn't stay here. He told me he'd been camping in the woods on the north side of the loch that weekend, then he just moseyed over to have a look at the hostel.'

Mary McArthur, one of only four permanent residents in the area, said: 'The story we heard was that he had taken a year out from work and was going to live off the land.

'He was supposed to have walked down the line towards Rannoch station so perhaps he decided to take shelter in the bothy. But what happened after that, who knows? We heard he was well equipped and knew what he was doing.'

Mrs McArthur added: 'We heard there were no suspicious circumstances but were not sure if it was hypothermia or a health complaint.

'It's someone's son and a sad way to go, all alone in the middle of nowhere.'

A British Transport Police spokesman confirmed the man had been identified as a 29-year-old from the East Midlands and that there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances.

A Crown Office spokesman confirmed that the procurator fiscal in Perth had recently received a report from BTP but was unable to provide any further details.

Rannoch is a 23-mile long stretch of open moorland between the A9 to the east and the A82 to the west. Apart from walking in, the only access is via the West Highland Railway line that crosses the moor.

The settlement at Rannoch Station comprises three houses, the Moor of Rannoch Hotel and the railway station. The nearest large town, Pitlochry, is 65 miles away.

Survival school instructor Ian Moran, who teaches extreme survival and bushcraft skills, said it was extremely unlikely anybody could survive a Highland winter out of doors living off the land.

He said: 'It would be a tall order for even the most professional person who calls himself a survivalist. Maybe centuries ago, when Scotland was covered in woodland and teeming with wildlife, but not now.'

He said with key core skills - he teaches rabbit skinning, natural navigation and making rope from nettles -- someone should be able to survive 72 hours before rescue, depending on weather conditions.

He added: 'Personally, I have four priorities of survival - fire, shelter, water and food.

'A human body can go three weeks without food so long as it is hydrated, but you have to process or filter water to drink otherwise you get sick.'
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Hoosiernorm
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Hoosiernorm »

A month is a long time without the correct gear and a good back up plan. The best plan is to understand when you are in trouble and how to escape that. Not knowing is an error that you can die from.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

The guy should have chosen a year with bare girls instead of Bear Grylls. It would have made all the difference.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Enki »

Man, people need to start learning that the appropriate time to start those adventures is March or May.

Put me out there without any training whatsoever, and I'll last longer...of course I'll do it in July. ;p
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Demon of Undoing »

It just depends what gear he took( and whether he could use it). They said he was well- equipped; if he had a proper bag, he could have avoided this. A decent Wiggys will take you down to -20F. Either he did something foolish, tried to go too light, or had really bad luck. All it takes is falling into some water. At those temps, you have minutes to get a drying fire going.

Sorry, bud. I was in Denali when McCandless died, me and a pal could have been to him on foot in a couple of days; we even knew the school bus. 'Course, we had no idea he was there, but I always felt like I could have done something. These guys go kick it out in the bush like it's a game. They call them " survival skills" for a reason; failing at the skill implies not surviving. Winter in Scotland? Dumb choice.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by noddy »

man o man, you should fully understand the place before attempting such as this.

so many euros die horrid in the australian bush, wrong assumptions, wrong gear, wrong wrong wrong... id only even consider doing this locally, in a place i know backwards... even moving to the other side of australia for a period i realised id lost lots... the instinct knowledge of time and direction based on where the sun is, ditto with the weather...oh its one of "those" storms...
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Enki »

Whenever I talk about wanting to move to the sticks and get some kind of ranch property, people think I mean I want to go all survivalist, when in reality I just want to live in a state with lax laws on what you can build on your property, build up a community, have access to roads and an internet connection.

This sort of thing is nutty. I mean, I'd love to have some of those skills and maybe I should be working on learning them, but not having backup, not my bag.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by noddy »

Enki wrote:Whenever I talk about wanting to move to the sticks and get some kind of ranch property, people think I mean I want to go all survivalist, when in reality I just want to live in a state with lax laws on what you can build on your property, build up a community, have access to roads and an internet connection.

This sort of thing is nutty. I mean, I'd love to have some of those skills and maybe I should be working on learning them, but not having backup, not my bag.
yeh i dont want caveman either (sorry ibrahim;) .. im pretty much dreaming of simmilar to that.. solar gear and low power toys give you a pretty good approximation of inner city techno heaven and its purely the ability to live in ermm, a traditional viewpoint of freedom ;)

in my area the only real step backwards would be water... getting that dream in australia means cutting back on water usage massively.. its precious.

the net would also not be permenant, i would have to go back to weekly or so trips to town and "synch with the world" but coming from my generation thats more a return to normality than a big adjustment.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Demon of Undoing »

Oh, I'm all for stripping it down to nothing, but you gotta walk first. He went straight into the advanced level. Like the one guy said, even a very experienced woodsman would be sorely pressed. I know for a fact that Australia at any location is the same thing. Florida, despite the five varieties of poisonous snakes and two of deadly spiders, is comparatively easy. It sucks, it hurts, it's nasty, but not very hard.

The weather is the thing. Only so much you can do with that.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by noddy »

in places with extremes of weather, either extremely cold like the far north or extremely hot and dry like most of australia ,the locals are nomadic for damn good reasons and the super duper legendary bushman wouldnt have survived long either, their skills told them to be elsewhere.

this is one of the tragedies of aboriginals in australia .. the whites took all the reasonably stable southern and northern environments and left them trapped permanently in the middle deserts they previously only visited... they didnt lose the ability to survive in the bush like many accused them of, they lost the ability to move with the seasons.

i sometimes envy the people with tropical climates.. then i remember the mosquitos :) and worse .. the fungus and infections.. my time in the tropics seemed to be a non stop experiment in unusual skin diseases and blood borne fevers.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by noddy »

watched a bit of the florida redneck alligator hunting documentary series on tv the other day, the everglades seems to be an awesome place, nothing like it in my world experience.

could definately see it being possible to live off the land in an environment like that.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Demon of Undoing »

Relevant

Most of this is just not possible in Scotland, from what I understand of the terrain.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Demon of Undoing »

noddy wrote:watched a bit of the florida redneck alligator hunting documentary series on tv the other day, the everglades seems to be an awesome place, nothing like it in my world experience.

could definately see it being possible to live off the land in an environment like that.
Yep. Helps to have the right tools. I've had this modded machete for some time. Started out life as a cane knife, like this

Image

However, add a plasma cutter and some handle shaping, you get this.

Image

From cane knife to khukri. South of about 30 degrees latitude, a machete is a far better thing to have than an axe, though an axe always has its place. Reason I took the picture is the sheath, however. Just had it made by Half Breed, pretty much won't ever go on my belt, just strapped to my ruck. Going to canoe about 26 miles of the St Johns river this summer, maybe hunt it in the winter, we'll see. This goes with. With pretty much just that bit of steel alone, you can stay alive in Florida.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Typhoon »

There's a good reason most of us live cities and towns.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by noddy »

yeh, its called women.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Typhoon »

noddy wrote:yeh, its called women.
:lol: Indeed.
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by noddy »

Demon of Undoing wrote:From cane knife to khukri. South of about 30 degrees latitude, a machete is a far better thing to have than an axe, though an axe always has its place. Reason I took the picture is the sheath, however. Just had it made by Half Breed, pretty much won't ever go on my belt, just strapped to my ruck. Going to canoe about 26 miles of the St Johns river this summer, maybe hunt it in the winter, we'll see. This goes with. With pretty much just that bit of steel alone, you can stay alive in Florida.
:-) i remember how useful a machete is in such places from my time in the pacific, everyone just lives with one - its the all purpose tool.

http://www.bushheritage.org.au/cdr_hist ... lypt_L.jpg

dont need any weapons in places like this but the only water you'll find is in your kit.

you can wrap plastic bags around the leaves and capture a wee bit of evaporation (a dribble) , you can distill you own piss (diminishing returns) and thats about it.
some people just head off into it, break down and die because you cant even last a full day without water in 40+ c (105+ f)
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Typhoon »

noddy wrote:man o man, you should fully understand the place before attempting such as this.

so many euros die horrid in the australian bush, wrong assumptions, wrong gear, wrong wrong wrong... id only even consider doing this locally, in a place i know backwards... even moving to the other side of australia for a period i realised id lost lots... the instinct knowledge of time and direction based on where the sun is, ditto with the weather...oh its one of "those" storms...
My experience in Australia was not too little water, but rather too much of it.

Northern Territories during the rainy season [Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfield Nat Park . . . ]. Non-stop rain, flash floods, and a cyclone . . .

Had a wonderful time through it all, aside from the ever-present damn flies.

Those green tree ants have a memorable bite . . .
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Demon of Undoing »

Look what we get to play with!

I think I'm going to need a bigger knife...
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by noddy »

Typhoon wrote:
noddy wrote:man o man, you should fully understand the place before attempting such as this.

so many euros die horrid in the australian bush, wrong assumptions, wrong gear, wrong wrong wrong... id only even consider doing this locally, in a place i know backwards... even moving to the other side of australia for a period i realised id lost lots... the instinct knowledge of time and direction based on where the sun is, ditto with the weather...oh its one of "those" storms...
My experience in Australia was not too little water, but rather too much of it.

Northern Territories during the rainy season [Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfield Nat Park . . . ]. Non-stop rain, flash floods, and a cyclone . . .

Had a wonderful time through it all, aside from the ever-present damn flies.

Those green tree ants have a memorable bite . . .
northern tropical australia is the one place over here ive not yet spent any quality time... my tropical experience is east of new guinea with the melanesians and polynesians... the solomons and other small island groups.

would love to do so , its at the top of my list for when i do ever get the ability to have a holiday and travel back in my life... got a sneeky feeling i may not return to my current location when i do :)
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by noddy »

Demon of Undoing wrote:Look what we get to play with!

I think I'm going to need a bigger knife...
8-)

so, what does anaconda taste like....
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Demon of Undoing »

noddy wrote:
Demon of Undoing wrote:Look what we get to play with!

I think I'm going to need a bigger knife...
8-)

so, what does anaconda taste like....
Not sure yet. Fifteen years ago when I lived down that way, I might have found out for you.

Generally, reptile sucks. I'll eat it before bugs, but I'm going to have to be far from food to even think on it.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by noddy »

Demon of Undoing wrote:Generally, reptile sucks. I'll eat it before bugs, but I'm going to have to be far from food to even think on it.
ive only tried crocodile and from that id agree... chewy and the worst kind of "fishy" and those that have eaten alot of it tell me you start to smell like that if you consume it regularly... based on your comment i think i can safely ignore more reptillian meals :)

you have to be living really rough to not have atleast chickens and/or goats anyway.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Demon of Undoing »

Oh, yeah. My thing has always been what they now call bushcraft ( we just just thought of it as being a competent woodsman). Homesteading/ farming, primitive husbandry, et has been something I've mostly stayed away from. If it gets that bad, fuckit. I'm going Apache.
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Re: "Adventurer" dies from hypothermia

Post by Torchwood »

Enki wrote:Man, people need to start learning that the appropriate time to start those adventures is March or May.

Put me out there without any training whatsoever, and I'll last longer...of course I'll do it in July. ;p
Rannoch Moor is such an awful place that you could easily die of hypothermia in August, let alone December.
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