20 Safety Tips for Solo Hikers (no BS, no Fluff)

🌏 Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra ➼ nordvpn.com/oscarhikes It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee!

Just completed my first multi-day hike solo. First time use trekking poles. A god send. I experimented walking without them and was so much slower and with terrible posture. Also helped in river crossings, preventing falls, tent setup, pretend sword etc.

Nr 14 (stop before looking at your phone navigation) is a life saving advice, I can tell from experience.

I live in Poland. Last year I was camping and I could hear elk or deer all around me. They weren't close, but they were active. I looked later and confirmed it was mating season. I listened to music, I strobed my light, I used my emergency whistle a couple of times, but they kept getting closer over the next few hours. Despite me being ready for sleep and it was pouring, I just felt uneasy, so I packed up and walked out of there. No one understood me, but I had to go with my gut. I'd rather not be there when a buck is ready to mate or fight...

been hiking 14 years now, on & off. this is Gold. tips 3 and 16 are 100% critical for pros and beginners alike. very commonly overlooked

I always love the straight forward, no fluff in ur videos. Makes me not feel like I’m wasting my time on YouTube🙌

Excellent educational video Oscar, not only for beginners but seasoned solo hikers and group hikers as well.Many times a group member will wander off and become lost and alone. I'm a solo female backpacker now in my 6th year and prefer to hike alone. You're absolutely correct with all of your tips, my favorite is "trusting your gut" it's happened to me a few times where I've bailed on multi-day hikes because something just didn't feel right. Thank you for all you do!

1. As for animals, don’t underestimate cows. Every year people get killed in the Alps when crossing a cow herd. 7. If you absolutely have to look over steep edges, crawl to them. It’s virtually impossible to lose balance that way, though still the edge could break of. Carrying a loud whistle is no big deal, but it can be very helpful if you need to call for help or shy away animals.

Thank you for showing the comparison between the dangers of hiking and driving a car. That was really eye-opening.

#11 Lyme’s Disease, if caught early and properly treated with a successful round of antibiotics, it can certainly be overcome. However, tests for it are famous for false negatives. A friend and I contracted the disease while doing a meadow restoration. My doctor convinced me to go straight to the antibiotics rather than wasting time on a potentially false test. my friend’s doctors were much more difficult to convince and he spent many years debilitated. Eventually, he recovered enough to lead a normal life, only to die of a rare and fast growing brain tumor. Lyme’s Disease can break down the protective blood brain barrier. One of my close relatives has been disabled for decades from Lyme’s Disease. Anyone who thinks they may have contracted it should err on the side of caution. Please!

İ really like your videos… and thanks for the important tips. My first solo hike was this year april. Actually i thought that i planned my hike but it turned out that i didint plan it throughly. First i didint learned about the water situation so in my first day i ended up asking other hikers for water. They were russian guys and they were very nice and shared their water with me. Second i packed to much food. And it made my pack heavy. İ packed the clothes that i planned to wear at the airport and city not to bother people with my dırty clotes and it made my pack heavy… as a result at the first say the route was hard and dangerous , lots of climbing, ups and downs and in some point i got so exhausted that i couldnt move in a rock passing and there was no room to rest. İ am glad that i was alive after that dangerous passing. Next day i left the trail went to a town and sent all the not important stuff to my friends house and lightened my pack from 15 kg to 10 kg. So i became free to pack the amount of water i needed. İt was the best decision that i made… i think without water a pack should be max 10 kg for a regular female person. İf you cant pack a pack under 10 kg dont go solo… sorry i learned it the hard way by risking my life. İ have a garmin watch and i couldn’t lower my heart rate under 180 for about an hour. İ tried breathing exercises, tried to stop and sit but because of the narrow edges of the rocks and cliff and the pounding sound of the waves hitting the cliff under my feet made me nervous. İf i had a light pack i could have passed that dangerous section in a short time and wouldn’t get so nervous that effected my heart rate so badly… because there were hikers passing me by and they had tiny backpacks and easily hopped through the rocks…

Thanks for these great tips. I am a (fairly) seasoned solo hiker and love the peace I get from it. Saying that, I'm starting to take my children out with me too. Knowing about safety statistics (re: accidents and ticks, for example) is very useful! New subscriber now :) Greetings from Switzerland.

You got lucky if you think lume wasn't bad,!!!!! I have chronic lyme. It's absolutely terrible I was destroyed for 4 years borderline bed ridden!!!! Be careful with lume and get it treated immediately!!!!

Trusting your gut instinct is the best advice. I’ve been in many situations where this has saved me. Most recent was feeling I was being watched while hiking alone in a remote area, and I decided to turn back. Found out afterwards that wild dogs were very active in the area and attacks had occurred on other walkers several days prior.

This is one of the best videos of seen on this topic, well done. Really sensible tips and well explained. And so happy you included "trust your instincts"! This is always overlooked.

Do not use tweezers to remove tick! Crashing it's back may cause intoxication. Use proper tool that costs 3$ and can be bought in any pharmacy. It's plastic, lightweight and allows to remove them without compression of it's back.

It's not a good idea to use the swiss army knife tweezers to remove a tick, you'll squeeze the tick injeting yourself with tick juice!! use some thing designed for tick removal - like a "tick card" or tick removal tool..

7:20 In a tick territory you shouldn't wear shorts or smth like that. You need your legs covered. The most important reason is - efficient anti-tick sprays must not be used on bare skin because 1) they're toxic and 2) they last much longer on cloth. Another point: good anti-tick sprays are only focused against them. General sprays against everything (tick+moskitos+smth+smth, etc) are significantly weaker. Also, you're saying to just remove the tick and you'll be fine. That's not always true. Yes, most ticks are "healthy" but some carry pretty dangerous (even life-threatening) deseases. Tick bites need to be avoided.

Dam shots fired at Kyle hates hiking😅

Good video sir, and a great list. The last point is something I can atest to as well. You just get a feeling...listen to it and go else where. It's usually you have seen something, or many somethings, and they haven't registored with your logical brain yet but you have seen signs and they are real. With experience you get much better at listening and also rationalising the feelings. A point, Primus makes a "Winter" Gas and I can say that it works as advertised (minus 22 I think), I have had it down to minus 24 and it still worked. For me it was a game changer during colder camping trips.