• Don’t travel alone without someone knowing your exact plans and time due back
• Carry enough water for you and your dog! On a hot summer day, 3 liters per person is a minimum.
• Know that mountain weather quickly changes. When you are above about 8000’, it can snow any month of the year.  Have a shell layer and enough insulation that you could survive an overnight, even if it’s a summer day hike.
• A loop route in unfamiliar country is a bad idea. Do an out and return route until you know the terrain.
• Don’t count on your mobile phone. Once you are more than a couple of miles away from town, there is very limited reception.  Batteries fail at the worst possible time.
• Don’t start an extreme adventure at noon. Start early. Be off the peaks before afternoon thunderstorms form and be home by 4 pm in the summer and 1 pm in the winter.  It can take several hours to mobilize a rescue, and it’s a lot easier to find you and to do that rescue at 1pm instead of 9pm.
• Get avalanche training and be able to recognize avalanche terrain
• Travel with partners who understand snow safety