QUESTION: Outdoor safety: what to do in bad weather?

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Encountering bad weather while out in nature requires the traveler to remain cool-headed, quickly assess risks, and strictly follow safety rules. To avoid critical situations, even at the preparation stage, it is necessary to draw up an exhaustive list of required documents, permits to visit reserves, contact details of rescue services, and deadlines for passing the route's checkpoints. Preliminary completion of all these formalities prevents ninety percent of potential problems associated with search and rescue operations.

If a sharp deterioration in the weather catches you by surprise right on the route, you must immediately stop moving and set up a safe shelter. Avoid setting up tents near solitary tall trees, on hilltops, near mountain riverbeds, or on potentially avalanche-prone slopes. Use available waterproof clothing and tarps, change into dry thermal underwear, and strictly monitor your hydration level and calorie intake to maintain the body's strength.

1. Assess current weather conditions and, in the event of a threat of a storm, thunderstorm, or heavy snowfall, abandon plans to go out into open spaces, ridges, and water bodies.
2. Light a stove or use a portable burner in a safe place to cook hot food and warm people, if the shelter allows it to be done without the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
3. Contact the rescue service or relatives, passing them your current coordinates and information about where exactly you are weathering the bad weather.

QUESTION: Outdoor safety: what to do in bad weather?

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