Lifesaving Advice for Your First Trip to the Mountains

Why the most experienced tend to get themselves into the most danger out in the wilderness, and the one thing beginners are actually better at that saves them.

I sat on my Wrangler’s back bumper, panting and out of breath. Just a few months prior, I’d been in Marathon-running shape. But that was in flatland Florida. My new Colorado apartment stood on ground more than a mile above sea level. The air, thin and dry.

The simple task of carrying boxes up the stairs taxed me more than I’d like to admit. While I was s…