My Emergency Whistle

    I like to hike up in the alpine of the Canadian Rockies, and because I am very safety oriented, I try to be prepared when I go up there.  I always take water, food, extra clothing and hats, one of those shiny emergency blankets, and my cell phone, even though in many of the places we hike there is no cell coverage.

    A couple of years ago, I bought myself an emergency whistle.  I thought that it might come in useful if I ever got hurt, lost, or separated from the group.  I hung the whistle on my daypack and that is where it remains.  I now doubt that I will ever use it.

    On a hike up to the Renshaw alpine last year, Glenn Stanley, a really experienced hiker and climber, told us a story that made me doubt my whistle’s usefulness.  He said that he and a few others were up hiking in the mountains and suddenly spotted a grizzly bear in the distance.  It hadn’t seen them and one of the hikers began to whistle, so to alert the bear of their existence, and scare it away.  

    The bear heard the whistles, but instead of moving away, listened, and started moving toward the hikers.  Here it might be useful to say that one of the things that grizzlies like to eat are marmots.  They are groundhog looking mammals that live up in the alpine and they make whistle sounds.  So by whistling, the hiker did not scare the bear away, it started its saliva running.

    That is why, I don’t know if it is a good idea to use a whistle while hiking in the alpine.

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