Backcountry Beacon

Stay cool out there, campers.

Heat is real. Just like extreme cold, hot weather has the power to harm or even kill you, no matter how badass you think you are. A report by the Center for Disease Control estimated that an average of 688 heat-related deaths occurred annually in the U.S. between 1999 and 2003. And while the National Weather Service figures are less extreme, heat is clearly no joke.

But that doesn’t mean you should hide inside all summer, cowering in the corner, bordering on full-blown panic with the idea that your air conditioning unit might stop working. That’s just stupid and we all know it. Rather, you should think of heat in the same way you think of the cold: as something for which you can prepare, so you can get outside and enjoy your favorite activities. We asked our resident expert, the Sun Doctor, to sit down and make a list of tips and tactics for keeping cool, but we didn’t anticipate that Spicy Nate, our resident dirtball/lunatic, would intercept the document before publishing and add in his questionable advice. Read More …