Protect important body joints
Outdoor body protection focuses on several key joints, especially ensuring the safety of leg joints. As long as there’s no major injury to the legs, it won’t affect your ability to walk, and if there are no serious injuries elsewhere on the body, you can generally reach a safe place for treatment. That’s why a good pair of hiking shoes is the primary guarantee for hiking safety. In addition to hiking shoes, the knees are the second most important joint to protect. When climbing areas such as rock walls, it’s easy to slip and injure your knees because they are protruding parts of the body that are most prone to scraping. Wearing knee pads is the best method of protection. The joints of the arms are slightly less critical than those of the legs. Normally, walking on marked trails doesn’t pose any issues, but if you find yourself off-trail, wearing an elbow pad—especially on the right elbow—can help. I once made a wrong judgment while off-trail in summer. After climbing onto a large rock in a stream, I found I couldn't stand at all. I slid down the rock face about four meters before falling and getting completely soaked by a waterfall. Fortunately, my knees were protected by knee pads and came out unscathed, but my elbow, lacking protection, got scraped. In cases of scrapes, in winter you can first apply snow to numb the pain — cooling the blood vessels is generally the first step in treating sports injuries. For wound care, you need a solution commonly known as hydrogen peroxide for disinfection. Alcohol is not sufficient for treating scrapes, especially in summer. Only wounds disinfected with hydrogen peroxide can avoid becoming infected. Dip a cotton swab in hydrogen peroxide to clean the wound, then wrap it in breathable gauze. The wound will usually heal within a few days. For strains or sprains, apart from pain relief, there’s not much you can do on-site — you’ll have to go home and recover slowly.
Use targeted gear
Avoid bare, sunny snow slopes without vegetation — these areas are prone to thin ice layers and are common sites for avalanches. When climbing steep snowy slopes, you must carry an ice axe. I once made the mistake of not bringing one, slipped and rolled down a snowy slope. Facing upward, I spotted a large tree ahead and managed to stop my slide by digging my crampons into the tree. Another time, I was sliding face down and grabbed a small branch mid-slide. Due to gravity, after sliding dozens of meters, the strain on my arm from holding the branch was intense — proper technique is essential. If you close your eyes and leave your fate to chance when sliding down a snowy slope, the likelihood of severe injury is high.
When climbing snowy mountains, pants are more important than jackets — many people overlook this. Your upper body generates a lot of heat during movement, so wearing too much can hinder ventilation and cooling. But if your pants get soaked in deep snow or while crawling up snowy slopes, your thigh muscles can cramp due to the cold and fatigue — this is a natural physiological response. Therefore, wearing waterproof pants is essential when climbing snowy mountains. I once tested this firsthand in a tough situation. Without snowshoes or waterproof pants, I hiked through chest- to thigh-deep snow in a forested snowy landscape for four hours. The heat from walking melted the snow, soaking my pants and leading to severe intermittent thigh cramps that left me almost immobile. At that point, I could only lie in the snow to ease the pain. Without raising my body temperature, it would’ve been hopeless. I managed to save myself by checking my topographic map on my phone, then off-trailing and scrambling down 700 meters in a hurry — a dangerous move for beginners or those without off-trail experience. The descent caused a slight rise in temperature, enough to relieve the muscle cramps. So, an ice axe, snowshoes, waterproof insulated pants, and GPS navigation are essential gear for snowy mountain hikes.
Minimize your backpack weight
For non-snowy mountain hiking in three-season conditions, the demands on gear functionality are relatively lower. The main issue in three-season hiking relates to weight. One of the primary causes of outdoor injuries is carrying too much weight, which leads to early fatigue and loss of balance — especially when crossing scree slopes or steep snowy hills. Heavy recreational gear can make routes impossible, while ultra-light gear can make the same routes manageable. I once carried a two-day load of around five kilograms across a large scree slope in summer, jumping carefully from one two-square-meter boulder to another for two hours. Walking such terrain with that much weight is almost unimaginable — the chances of slipping, getting injured, or getting stuck between rocks are high. An American once got stuck like that in a scree slope and had to cut his own arm off with a knife to escape — the incident was later turned into an outdoor survival movie. It's also common to encounter rugged mountain paths that require you to use your hands and feet to climb. Over time, doing this with a heavy backpack greatly increases your risk of injury.
Use the gear that matches your route, and equip yourself with targeted, ultra-light gear — these are essential and important means of preventing injuries and accidents. Even local mountain dwellers use targeted gear, such as ultra-light bamboo baskets, small hoes instead of ice axes, knee-high leg covers for waterproofing, or a piece of plastic sheeting rigged between trees with thin ropes to make a makeshift tent. There’s no need to imitate them — mountain-dwelling isn’t what we call outdoor sports. The outdoors is about safely and comfortably climbing with professional or recreational gear. So if you don’t have suitable gear or can’t minimize your backpack weight, the safest choice is to avoid routes that exceed your abilities or the limits of your equipment.