Be WaterWise #4 - Cold Water: The Hidden Danger for Paddlers

Many of you love taking your packrafts to beautiful alpine lakes. Or maybe you're just using it to cross a river or lake. Either way, the packraft allows us to draw increasingly expansive lines on our maps. Luc Mehl has tracked packrafting fatalities from the early days of the sport in the 1990’s. Incredibly, he’s found that 44% of packrafting fatalities involved cold water and solo paddling. Whoa, right? So how can packrafters develop good judgement? Well, dressing for a swim can reduce the chance and amount of exposure and improve our odds of survival. And knowing flatwater conditions is key. Cold water, wind, and weather can cause hazardous conditions leading to exposure in cold waters during remote lake crossings. Understanding these risks not only protects individual paddlers but also strengthens our Culture of Safety and helps keep the packrafting community safe and connected to the places we love.

Make Sure to Check out all 10 of the Safety Videos at https://www.packraft.org/pages/education/water-wise-safety-videos