I (fourth from left) and the other dauntless members of a five-day rafting expedition do calisthenics on the riverbank to keep hypothermia at bay. We ran sixty-nine miles of the Wild and Scenic Owyhee River (in Oregon’s remote southeast corner) in winter. It snowed every day. None of us had brought a wet suit.
I unintentionally swam the entire length of the Class IV Montgomery Rapid, in winter and without a wetsuit, after falling out of the raft I was captaining at the head of the rapids. This shot was taken with a telephoto lens just as I resurfaced from the bottom of a whirlpool.
My buddies put me (bottom-center, wearing blue and gray balaclavas) in a four-person body sandwich to treat my severe hypothermia after swimming Montgomery Rapid in winter. After an hour and a half—and drinking two quarts of hot water—my body temperature was still only 94.6 degrees Fahrenheit. This was one of over a half dozen times I nearly lost my life in the wild.
Michael Cooper Adventurer
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