12 THE CHRONICLE - MOUNTAINEER, Tumbler Ridge, B.C., Wed., Nov. 30, 1983 Hypothermia a real winter risk As winter comes to British Columbia, outdoor recreation groups gear up to help people enjoy the great outdoors and to inform them of the dangers winter can pose to uninformed adventurers. “Today, it is an accepted fact that most outdoor activi- ties have a certain amount of ‘built-in risk’ in them,” says George Cooper, outdoor safe- ty and awareness co-ordinator for the Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing. Despite this acceptance, he adds, “few of us are really prepared to cope with an emergency.” Imagine yourself on a hike when all of a sudden one of the members of the group starts to shiver uncontrollably. He de- nies there’s any serious prob- lem but he speaks with diffi- culty. What would you do? This person is showing the classic symptoms of hypo- thermia, says Jim Rutter, ex- ecutive director of the Feder- ation of Mountain Clubs. Hypothermia, or a lowering of body temperature, is a major outdoor safety problem in British Columbia in winter, Mr. Rutter says. Many people go out for a hike wearing den- im clothes. The trouble is when denim gets wet, it has no insulative value and the body loses heat rapidly. Hypothermia can kill and does regularly. A person who is alone will start to become incoherent and unable to exer- cise good judgment. Often the victim will deny being in trou- ble. Without treatment, the hypothermia victim will con- tinue to deteriorate, until pulse and respiration slow and the victim becomes drowsy. When body temperature drops to 28°C, heart failure is likely. Mr. Rutter says the most important treatment for a hypothermia victim is to get dry, get heat and get food, es- pecially liquids, But better yet, be prepared for exposure to the elements in winter. Go prepared for problems Cross-country skiers are exposed to dangers of hypothermia and avalanches. Wear fibre-filled or wool clothing. Take along snacks of high energy foods and if you plan to be away long, some liquids. Hypothermia should be a concern to a broad range of outdoor recreationists, in- cluding cross-country skiers, backpackers, snowmobilers and boaters. For boaters, hypothermia is a risk both winter and summer. Some risks like avalanches are seasonal. Each year, ava- lanches thunder down moun- tainsides by the hundreds in British Columbia. Knowing when they will is a complex science but outdoor winter sports enthusiasts must learn to read the signs of avalanche danger, Mr. Rutter says. For example, windward sides of hills tend to be safer than lee- ward sides where heavy snow tends to be deposited by wind action. Also, north facing slopes tend to be more danger- ous in mid-winter while south-facing slopes are more dangerous in spring. The Federation of Moun- tain Clubs puts on a number of avalanche safety courses, partly funded by the provin- cial government. For further information on these courses, contact Mr. Rutter at the fed- eration office in Vancouver, Post Office Box 33768, Postal Station D, V6J 4L6. The Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing also helps the B.C. Snow Vehicle Asso- ciation put on courses to train instructors in snowmobile safety. Association President Bill Shields says 167 instructors have been trained and are giv- ing courses this winter throughout the province, in association with one of the 69 clubs affiliated with the BCSVA or in local high schools. Mr. Shields says the course covers the machine itself, safe riding procedures, basic first aid, survival, avalanche recog- nition environment aware- -ness and familiarization with the All-Terrain Vehicle Act, which regulates snowmobiles in British Columbia. In British Columbia, there are more than 5,000 miles of trails developed and groomed by clubs for snowmobilers. Mr. Shields’ advice to anyone just getting into the pastime is ‘join a club’, especially since most snowmobile accidents are collisions with fixed ob- jects in unfamiliar terrain. Cross-country skiers regu- larly exposes themselves to the dangers of winter yet basic safety knowledge is low, ac- cording to Donna Hayes, tour- ing chairman of the Canadian Ski Association in Vancouver. “People need to get down to the nitty gritty,” regarding ski safety, yet there is weak re- sponse to association-spon- sored workshops, Ms. Hayes says. There is a tendency to push the down-side of that glorious winter outdoor ex- perience to the back of one’s mind, To make sure your outdoor experience ends happily this winter, go prepared. For more information on outdoor safe- ty, contact the nearest regional office of the Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing for brochures on avalanches, snowmobiling safety and ski- ing, or contact the Outdoor Recreation Council of B.C. 1200 Hornby St., Vancouver, B.C. V6Z 2E2. 60 Canadian heroes honored by national library *~ By James Nelson OTTAWA (CP) -— Quickly, now. Name 60 heroes of Canadian history or folklore. Laura Secord, Billy Bishop, Terry Fox. And, ah, Louis Riel, John A. Macdonald, Samuel de Champlain. That’s six. The National Library is honoring 60 heroes in a special exhibit which is on ‘display until late January. It includes N’ha-a-tik and Sedna, out of Indian and Inuit folklore, and Capt. Bob Bartlett, Emily Murphy and Louis-Honore Frechette, names that are not likely to spring to everyone’s mind. N’ha-a-tik is the water spirit said to haunt British Columbia’s Lake Okanagan, named Snake- in-the-Lake by the Salish Indians. It was given the name Ogopogo in the 1920s after an English music hall song that was popular then. Sedna is the Inuit god- dess of the underworld who lives at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. WITH EXPLORERS Robert Bartlett, from Newfoundland, was Ad- miral Robert E. Peary’s navigation officer who sailed the ship Roosevelt to within 200 kilometres of the North Pole and Peary went on by dogsled to reach the Pole in 1909. Bartlett also sailed for the explorer Vilhjamur Stefansson and survived 12 shipwrecks in his career. Emily Murphy was the first woman, in 1916, to be appointed a magistrate in the British Empire. She also was one of the women who successfully fought a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that women, like “children, criminals and idiots’’ were not really persons within the meaning of the British North America Act. The judicial committee of the Privy Council in London C & L NEW and USED FURNITURE and SUPPLIES If we don't have what you want we will make an effort to find it. C & L NEW & USED FURNITURE and SUPPLIES 539-1930 11301 - 100 St., Grande Prairie overruled the Supreme Court decision. Louis-Honore Frechette was, at his death in 1908, French Canada’s most celebrated poet, hardly known in the rest of the country, though he won honors from the Academy of France. MANY ITEMS RARE The National Library’s exhibit is crowded into its main floor display area. It is based on books and papers in the library’s collection, many of them rare items. But researcher Hannach Aach and exhibition co-ordinator Andrea Paradis have fleshed out the book display with artifacts borrowed from national and regional museums. There is First World War aviator Billy Bishop’s a a EE Se uniform and cap; a white lace cap worn by Laura Secord, the heroine of Niagara in the War of 1812, borrowed from the McCord Museum in Montreal; and the priest’s hat worn by Jean de Brebeuf before he became a martyr. Terry Fox, the cancer-_ stricken marathon runner, is the country’s most modern hero honored in the display. Jacques Cartier, discoverer, and Samuel de Champlain, explorer and colony-builder, are the oldest heroes com- memorated. Others included in the exhibit are Frederick Banting, Norman Bethune, Alexander Graham Bell, T.C. Haliburton, Grey Owl and Robert Service — and if you don’t know who they are, the show will tell you. WEEKEND ROOM PACKAGE Any Friday, Saturday, or Sunday Night $35.00/Night Based on Double Occupancy. $8.00/Person Extra. PLUS $5.00 Breakfast Voucher/Room for Ma's Coffee Shop Live Entertainment in the Pub & Lounge ~ Racquetball Complex Next Door Fine Dining A great meeting place! | GEORGE Inn DAWSON * Limousine Service to and from Airports * Lab notes 11705 - 8th Street, Dawson Creek, B.C. Phone 782-9151 By Austin Rand Most skiing injuries occur in the afternoon, says a Canadian doctor specializing in sports medicine. “When interviewed, many skiers speak of being too tired to avoid the fall leading to an injury,” says Dr. Rob Lloyd-Smith of the Sports Medicine Clinic at the University of British Columbia. This pattern of injuries increasing in the afternoon emphasizes the importance of being fit before going out on the slopes, says Lloyd- Smith. He suggests in an article in Canadian Family Physician that skiers should concentrate on improving both aerobic fitness, through jogging and running, and anaerobic conditioning. “This involves repeated short sprints to exhaustion with a rest period three to four times the length of the sprint. The type of activity can be stair climbs, hill climbs, track sprints or bicycle ergometer sprints.” Tuning up flexibility is also important along with improving muscle strength, particularly in the abdominal muscles, the thighs, the lower legs, the backs of the legs and the muscles around the spine. Other than insufficient conditioning, the most important contributor to skiing injuries is ski bin- dings that don’t release, says Lloyd-Smith. “Despite improvements in bindings, 42 per cent of all ski injuries (in a recent study) were due to inad- vertent or premature release of bindings,” he says. The best bindings for novice skiers, he adds, are ..those that release in “response to pressure in a wide variety of directions. Such bindings com- pensate for novice skiers’ tendency to ‘‘fall frequently and in unusual ways,”’ Lloyd-Smith says. DOCTORS’ GRIPES Doctors feel many patients abuse their ser- vices, indicates a survey of almost 600 Ontario physicians. One of the most common offences is missed ap- pointments, says the study reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Eighty per cent of the doctors surveyed felt that patients who missed an appointment and did not cancel were misusing the service offered by the doctor. The great majority of doctors were also strongly critical of patients who requested further medical examination or referral to a specialist, when the doctor saw no reason for a referral, and of patients who insisted on medications which the doctor thought un- necessary. Another common complaint was the patient who has a medical problem but does not see the doctor about it. Instead, the patient comes in when the problem has cleared up just to check that everything is all right. In the same category are patients who visit a doctor for a note saying that he or she is fit for work again — but had never consulted the doctor about the problem while it was actually oc- curing. Physicians who thought that providing reassurance to patients was an im- portant part of their job were less sensitive about “unwarranted” use of their services, says the study carried out by a research team lead by statistician Christel Woodward of McMaster University, Hamilton. MAY BE INSURED Many patients erroneously believe that it is impossible to obtain life insurance during or after treatment for cancer, says a Canadian doctor specializing in care for the extremely ill. Dr. David Smith of Toronto Western Hospital says: the percentage of cancer patients surviving ™ at least five years after diagnosis has increased significantly in the past five years — and life in- companies surance recognize this fact. Insurance says Smith, “For example, insurance have companies pibartgart 1D 1 ARTE 1 RN) ER | TE) Dc Now Open For Business ; NANCY’S WICKER j & GIFT ACCESSORIES 332 Bergeron Drive Great Christmas Gifts Phone now for Parties. 242-3936 OS (a DD os eee S| a (