Good morning, everyone, from beautiful Southern Utah
These are the Kolob Canyons
they are part of Zion National Park, but they definitely have
many fewer people here, I'm the only one at this view viewpoint today
It's just half a mile from the parking lot, and the interstate is at the other
side of that hill, probably like 3 or 4 miles away, as the crow flies
so not a remote place by any means
but you don't need to be hundreds of miles away from civilization to get in trouble
I don't have cell service here
if for any reason I get hurt and I can't walk back to the car, those 3-4 miles that
sound like very little, they're going to feel like a thousand, like a million miles
I spend a lot of time outdoors and trying to get away from people and from civilization
but that has a risk, it comes with a risk that I try to minimize
today, I'm going to be talking about the safety measures that I take when I get out
this is not meant to be an exhaustive guide about what we should do outside
it's what I do, and I would love to hear about your own tips and advice
when it comes to being safe out there
so the first thing is to avoid getting in trouble at all
that means: know your skills, know your capabilities, where you are able to go,
how far you can push yourself
the same goes for your car
don't put your car on roads that it cannot handle
keep extra food in your bag, even if it's just a couple of granola bars
they might save your life
always, always, have water with you
make sure you have plenty of gas in the tank, or at least that you are aware where the next
gas station is, if you are far away from it or not
wear the proper shoes and the proper clothes for the weather
I'm pretty bad at this, I never wear enough clothes, I'm always kind of cold
that is a mistake I'm trying to fix
if you are shooting during sunrise or sunset, bring a light with you
you can use your phone as well
but talking about the phone, be very careful with
the battery because when it gets cold, it drains really, really fast
I have an extra battery in my camera bag and a cable, so I can always charge it
even if it's just to 20%, 25%,
that's all you need if you need to make an emergency call or something like that
Having a first aid kit is also a very good idea
I don't have one with me right now in my camera bag, I only have a few band-aids and Ibuprofen
i have more stuff when i go on longer hikes, and I have a proper kit back in the car, just in case
it takes very little room and it could be of great help
Make sure that at least one person
knows about your plans and when you expect to be back in civilization
don't just tell them, send them a message or an email or something like that, so they don't
forget, so there is no confusion about where you are going, what you said you were going
I give myself a little cushion of 2-3 hours about the time that I expect to be back,
just in case I find some interesting images to be made
or just in case I don't get service back when I was expecting so people don't worry about me
but it is very important to have a deadline, because if something does happen to you,
a few hours can make a big difference
Self defense
A bear spray is a very good idea, i've never had one but i'm planning on getting one
it doesn't make sense for this trip anymore, because it's almost done
but for the next trip, I will get one
Bear spray, despite the name, is just pepper spray
so it works with bears, it works with other animals like mountain lions,
it works with people as well
I also keep a little knife with me
this is not for self defense purposes, it's just in case I need to cut some branches,
if something gets stuck, a thread or something, to open food packages, and stuff like that
but hey, it could work if you really need to defend yourself
The last thing I wanted to talk about is this little device right here
this was a very recent purchase
I bought it 3 weeks ago
it's a satellite communicator
there are not many brands out there that make these
one of them is Garmin, I guess that's the most popular one
this is Zoleo or something like that, I don't know
it's a brand new company, I think they released this
satellite communicator just back in January of this year
this device is very, very basic when it comes to features, compared to the Garmin
but it's also much, much cheaper
the only thing that this device does is send and receive messages, that's all
but it can do it from anywhere in the world, no matter where you are,
no matter if you have service on your phone, no matter if you have a phone at all
you need to have a kind of clear view of the sky, though,
so it's not going to work in buildings, basements, or caves
I don't really know why I haven't gotten one of these much sooner
this can be a life saver, it has an SOS button there that you can press
and hopefully, in theory, help will be in their way soon after
as I said, you don't need to be in super remote places, you don't need to be in
strenuous hikes to the middle of nowhere
just driving around, what happens if your car breaks down and you don't have service?
being able to text someone and send them your GPS coordinates... that can save your life
So far, I've only used it to send messages like "I'm okay",
"I just got here", "How are you?", that kind of stuff
but it gives you a peace of mind that I didn't have before
I'm going to leave a link in the description down
below to this product, just in case you are interested
I'm not endorsing this one specifically, take a look at the Garmin ones if you want more features,
like maps, location requests, and stuff like that
this is just perfect for me, though, and for the price... it's awesome
There is no such thing as a risk-free hike, there is no such thing as a risk-free drive
but again, life is not risk-free no matter where you are, no matter what you are doing
something could always happen at any moment
this is just about minimizing the chances of that happening
and if something does happen, improving our chances to get out of that situation in one piece
That's all, i think, that I had to say about safety in the outdoors
I'm going to keep going on my little hike here in beautiful Southern Utah
Please remember to leave your tips down in the comments below
Thank you so much for watching, and see you the next one!