Mountaineering can present many hazards and dangers, some less obvious than others. The risks associated with cooking and melting snow whilst tent-bound on expedition were hammered home recently to an Alpine Club member - both he and his partner were very lucky to survive.

A warning to mountaineers has been circulated by Dave Wyne-Jones of the Alpine Club, after a close brush with death during a Mongolian Expedition. Dave and his tentmate were lucky to survive after being overcome by Carbon Monoxide poisoning in their tent.

Read the article on the Alpine Club website here.

The lessons learnt appear to be:

• Only cook in your tent when you absolutely have to.
• Ventilate the tent as much as possible during cooking/melting snow.
• Take extra care when using heat exchanger pots.
• Don't melt too much snow at a time.
• If possible have a "buddy" outside of the tent keeping an eye on you, ready to pull you out.
• Investigate using stove options which have less of a "quenching" effect.

« Back