Hey, I just joined, and I'm kinda new to the whole camping/climbing scene. I live in the Texhoma area, and I was wondering if anyone around there would be willing to sort of train me. I have a few issues, but nothing that I'm not willing to work around. Please let me know.

hippyman wrote:Hey, I just joined, and I'm kinda new to the whole camping/climbing scene. I live in the Texhoma area, and I was wondering if anyone around there would be willing to sort of train me. I have a few issues, but nothing that I'm not willing to work around. Please let me know.

There's lots of books to read and videos to watch about climbing and camping. You can visit your local library or do a Google search. Now, you have virtual climbs and can see how the mountain looks. Just be mindful that true rock climbing is very dangerous and should be taught by experts only. There's a lot of misinformation out there, so beware. Here, we have the local enviro club who loves to send people wrong and likes to get people hurt, even killed.

You'll probably want to buy some gear, boots, clothes, rope, tent, sleeping bag, etc. You can really waste your money doing what the stores will try to sell you on, a lot you really do not need. I usually get my stuff at a big discount, and know what I need and what I can use. Do not think about those ski poles that hold your wine, for $50-100, it's for stupid rich people. Plenty of similar scams, so more info on where you are coming from helps. Do you want to climb some big mountains, or just go out with family on a camping trip to the local lake, say?

Hey, thanx for the reply, I'll try and give u some idea of where I'm hoping to end up. I would eventually like to tackle the big peaks, however, I want to be able to go out as if in a survival situation(i.e. no tent or sleeping bag.) I know you can make a warm sleeping bag from just leaves and a garbage bag, and I've been reading up on making survival shelters. I eventually want to be the kind of person who can survive anywhere, with just whats on their back, if thats possible. I just need someone to help me get started.

hippyman wrote:Hey, thanx for the reply, I'll try and give u some idea of where I'm hoping to end up. I would eventually like to tackle the big peaks, however, I want to be able to go out as if in a survival situation(i.e. no tent or sleeping bag.) I know you can make a warm sleeping bag from just leaves and a garbage bag, and I've been reading up on making survival shelters. I eventually want to be the kind of person who can survive anywhere, with just whats on their back, if thats possible. I just need someone to help me get started.

Well... train first, go into the wilderness first with the right gear so you know what the reality can be like. Build a library of experiences.

Then, if you still are hankering for some real survival knowledge, check out this guy:

http://www.codylundin.com/

(edit: fixing the url)

Hey, thanx for the reply, I'll try and give u some idea of where I'm hoping to end up. I would eventually like to tackle the big peaks, however, I want to be able to go out as if in a survival situation(i.e. no tent or sleeping bag.) I know you can make a warm sleeping bag from just leaves and a garbage bag, and I've been reading up on making survival shelters. I eventually want to be the kind of person who can survive anywhere, with just whats on their back, if thats possible. I just need someone to help me get started.

Sounds like a AF survival manual is your thing. They teach all sorts of clever things, like burying yourself in the dirt to stay warmer, building fires without detection, etc. Although if you are somehow in the high peaks in winter and have no warm clothes, most simply freeze to death. Sometimes if you have matches or what you can start a fire, but it's a real trick if everything is wet and cold. Boy scouts used to teach how to make a fire w/o matches, but I could never do it.

To avoid hypothermia is your first course of action when faced with freezing to death. Your thinking starts to go bad when you get cold, and that's what does in most people. A warm cap helps. There's lots of physiology involved, but you do have to have some basic understanding of medicine and science. There's wind chill, heat loss, and other measurings that you had best know. Hard to explain here, but you will have to do a lot of reading. Avoid the trash science and disinformation, much spread by local enviro club people and similar.

You ought to go and spend some time up in the Wichitas. You are only an hours drive from either the Refuge or Quartz Mountain. The Charon's Garden Wilderness ought to give you a taste of what you are looking for.

By the way, how is the skiing in Vernon?

Bubba Suess wrote:You ought to go and spend some time up in the Wichitas. You are only an hours drive from either the Refuge or Quartz Rock. The Charon's Garden Wilderness ought to give you a taste of what you are looking for.

By the way, how is the skiing in Vernon?

I did spend go "day trippin" out to Medicine Mound, when I was a kid, on the west side of Vernon, in Hardeman county. Hiking back to the nearest sign of civilization, after a breakdown, is about the extent of my outdoor experience, as of yet.

+ 1 for the Wichitas. You would never know you were in Oklahoma if you got picked up and dropped off there.

hippyman wrote:I did spend go "day trippin" out to Medicine Mound, when I was a kid, on the west side of Vernon, in Hardeman county.

Did you climb to the summit of the Mound? I always wondered about them when I would head back to home in California/grad school in Dallas on 287. They are on private land aren't they?

Bubba Suess wrote:

hippyman wrote:I did spend go "day trippin" out to Medicine Mound, when I was a kid, on the west side of Vernon, in Hardeman county.

Did you climb to the summit of the Mound? I always wondered about them when I would head back to home in California/grad school in Dallas on 287. They are on private land aren't they?

Sorry, but yes, they are on private land, I knew the guy, so I could ask him first.

Definitely go to the Wichitas and out to Quartz Mt. I learned to rock climb there in the 1970s. Very cool vibe back then.
As far as camping goes.... any ole campground will do the trick. Just get out a lot and have fun.

And one little ridiculous piece of advice. I'm serious. Wait until some night in January when it's like Siberia... and try to survive the night camping in your backyard. If it's snowing, that's even better. It's like "top-roping" in the survival world (that's a reference to a no risk climbing technique). If it gets to where you think you're going to die... go back inside the house and have a good laugh.