Heat Exhaustion

The following post if from Philip Werner's sectionhiker.com site.  Heat exhaustion and dehydration can sneak up on you.  This post has some several well founded suggestions that are worth reviewing.

I didn’t put two and two together when I was experiencing the symptoms of heat exhaustion during a high exertion hike last week, but after a friend pointed it out to me, I realized that I’d had a close call.

While I’d taken precautions against the sunlight and heat such as drinking plenty of water, monitoring my urine color, eating salty foods, wearing a hat, and loose-fitting, well-ventilated, and lightly colored clothing, the location I’d been hiking in had put me at high risk.

For example, I’d hiked 8 miles of black-top and a cinder covered rail trail during the middle of a hot sunny and humid day, followed by a 3000 foot climb up a steep mountain with a 30 pound backpack. The following day, I hiked another very strenuous 6 miles above treeline in full sunlight, where I could feel the heat reflecting off the boulder fields I had to traverse.

To read the rest of the post go here.