What is the most common cause of hiking accidents in the mountains?
Show answer
Tripping and slipping
Not falls from sheer walls but banal missteps on easy trails fill the mountain rescue statistics, mostly with tiredness and poor footwear.
All questions with answers
Most mountain accidents happen at which stage of a tour?
Show answer
On the descent
Tired legs, fading concentration, more load on the joints: the way down is the most dangerous part of the tour. Pacing yourself means budgeting for the return.
What is the right behaviour when a thunderstorm catches you on the mountain?
Show answer
Away from ridges and trees, crouch down, feet together
Avoid summits, ridges, crosses, fences and lone trees, seek hollows, make yourself small: crouch, feet close together: that keeps the dangerous step voltage low.
Is there any truth to old folk rhymes about which woods offer shelter in a tempest?
Show answer
No: every tree is dangerous in a thunderstorm
Lightning knows no botany: it prefers whatever stands tallest. Old rhymes arose because lightning scars are simply harder to see on smooth bark like the beech's.
What is the alpine distress call pattern?
Show answer
Six signals per minute, then one minute of silence
Every ten seconds a whistle, shout or flash, six times, then pause and repeat until an answer comes. The pattern distinguishes distress from cheerful hollering.
How do rescuers answer the alpine distress call?
Show answer
With three signals per minute
Whoever hears the answer stays put and keeps signalling: the rescuers home in on the sound. So don't run off the moment a whistle answers.
What are trail blazes, cairns and numbered rescue signs good for when you need help?
Show answer
They pinpoint your location for the emergency call
Painted marks, stone piles and the numbered rescue plates of many forests are fixed points rescuers know. Reading them in passing pays off the moment you must say where you are.
Should you cut cross-country in steep terrain when the path drags on?
Show answer
No (stay on the trail)
Shortcuts end in fall terrain, slippery grass slopes and dwarf-pine fields with no way forward or back. The trail is the only tested ground far and wide.
Where do you ford a river most safely?
Show answer
At a wide, shallow, calm stretch
Wide means shallow and slow; the narrow spot is the deep, tearing one. Angle upstream, use a stick as a third leg and never just below weirs or above rapids.
Why do you unbuckle the pack's hip belt before fording a river?
Show answer
To shed the pack instantly in a fall
A soaked pack pulls you down like an anchor and makes swimming impossible. Open belt means: shrug it off and live: luggage is replaceable.
Darkness catches you off the trail. What is wisest?
Show answer
Stop and set up an emergency bivouac
Walking on in the dark multiplies the risk of falls and leads deeper into nowhere. Wind-sheltered spot, insulation, stay conspicuous: morning always looks better.
Which animal is statistically the most dangerous in temperate forests?
Show answer
The tick
Not wolf, not boar: ticks transmit Lyme disease and TBE to tens of thousands every year. Long trousers, body checks, vaccination where available; that is real predator protection.
How do you behave around a wild boar sow with piglets?
Show answer
Keep your distance and back away slowly
Boars attack almost only when defending young or when cornered. Don't approach, don't feed, leave the animal an escape route and it will withdraw.
How does a mobile's battery survive the cold on a winter tour?
Show answer
Carry the phone close to your body
Lithium batteries collapse in frost: a "dead" phone from the outer pocket often revives worn inside the jacket. Inner pocket, not pack lid.
What is the most underestimated danger in the mountains?
Show answer
The sudden change of weather
Twenty degrees of sunshine turn into fog, rain and single digits within an hour at altitude. Check the forecast, set a turnaround time, always pack a rain and warm layer: even under blue sky.
How PurFact works
- Every new tab, every visit: one question from your packs.
- What you know comes back at growing intervals; what you don't yet comes back sooner.
- Games, learning paths and duels with friends turn studying into a competition.
Home · All topics · Legal notice · Privacy · Terms · Contact