Dominik1507

I can definitely feel ya Even my neighbours pet cat can turn into a speedy ball of fur and claws if you tick him off. Scaling this up by a factor of three or so might easily make any nearby cache a serious terrain 5 (for requiring specialised equipment: kevlar suit ) All the best, Dominik

Good to hear that you did not get injured while srambling down. Certainly, I do not want to diminish your adventure. I can imagine that seeing a big and angry cat so close to ones face is quite shocking. However, I do not think there actually was a significant danger to your life. Here in northern Bavaria, after decades of efforts, finally bobcats have become a -still smal, but growing- part of the natural fauna again (although they are of the species lynx lynx, which is slightly larger than the lynx rufus you find in the continental US). Anyhow, I do not know of a documented case where a bobcat actually killed a human. Even medically significant non-lethal attacks are exceedingly rare, and in many cases related to rabies. So, forgetting for a moment the unpleasant circumstances of the encounter, I think we should all count ourselves lucky to be living in parts of the world where it is still possible to see large mammals in their natural habitat. Cheers from Germany, Dominik

Hi, my experience is from using the Etrex Venture cx and the 60 cx, but I suppose it should work the same way with the Etrex H series: with the "rocker", you can move the cursor to the field with the units (e.g. "km"). By pressing "Enter", you open up a dropdown-menue where you can choose from a number of different units, including meters. Then just enter "600" for 0.6km. Now, what is really missing is a way to project in smaller direction increments than 1 deg... Hope that helps, Dominik

Hi, my experience is from using the Etrex Venture cx and the 60 cx, but I suppose it should work the same way with the Etrex H series: with the "rocker", you can move the cursor to the field with the units (e.g. "km"). By pressing "Enter", you open up a dropdown-menue where you can choose from a number of different units, including meters. Then just enter "600" for 0.6km. Now, what is really missing is a way to project in smaller direction increments than 1 deg... Hope that helps, Dominik

I just found out about this thread and the special coins -- I will get my order out as soon as possible, as this geocoin certainly fits my medical state. For what its worth, here is my story: On June 20th, I (Dominik1507) decided to tackle a tree-climbing cache near Hanau, which is about 5 stories above ground. After prusiking basically most of the way to the cache container, I was standing on a solid branch of the tree, and just wanted to clip into a sling I had placed a bit higher. I carelessly unclipped my belay first (thinking I had a very solid standing), and in the same second, I fell... Since there was nothing holding me back anymore, I took the long jump all the way to the ground (which is about 12 meters of free falling), and crashed very hard on my back. After beeing able to breeth again, I made an emergency call via my cellphone, and after "walking" several hundred meters to the nearest road (to expedite the rescue process, I was in fear of severe internal injuries), was transported to hospital / emergency room. Computed tomography showed a total of 6 fractured vertebrae, and another 4 bruised ones. Fractures in one vertebra were so severe that it was not immediately clear whether there would be damage to the spinal nerves (see image). Now, three weeks later, the pain has subsided, and although this will take some time to heal, it seems that I will be alright again and should not suffer permanent damage. However, needless to say, I am still quite happy with the outcome, knowing that the fall could well have ended me up in a wheelchair, or in a coffin. Needless also to say, I learned my lesson about belaying from this unneccessary mistake. The story about the fall made it into the local newspapers, but they got basically everything wrong that could conceivably be misunderstood, and thereby invented the term "Geo-Climbing" for what they thought I was doing. The newspaper report can be found alongside my log entry on the cache page (unfortunately, it is in German): Shorty I