Working with young people it is important I believe that we give them the skills to make good decisions when the ‘adult’ is not around, in preparation for becoming adults themselves. Running a walking expedition in October 2019 it was raining and very cold.
What was most interesting was the young people were cooking outside struggling to cook and freezing, some potentially hypothermic.
Inquiring why not cook inside the tent when suggested the common mantra of, “we are not allowed” and “it’s too dangerous”. On the second night I suggested they do cook inside the flysheet of their tent – a new experience and amazing how it lifted spirits. It definitely got me thinking – should we be educating our young people to be able to cook inside the tent?
As a scout growing up doing winter mountaineering and hikes (as young as 12) we regularly cooked inside the tent using paraffin primus stoves, and never had a problem. The constant roar was a welcome distraction from the howling gale outside and the extra few degrees warmed the soul. I suppose we were very well trained although I suspect we did not fully understand the risks or have any tools if there was a fire. Likewise, in the military we regularly cooked inside tents, snow holes and shelters. Acceptable risk.
As a scout growing up doing winter mountaineering and hikes (as young as 12) we regularly cooked inside the tent using paraffin primus stoves, and never had a problem. The constant roar was a welcome distraction from the howling gale outside and the extra few degrees warmed the soul. I suppose we were very well trained although I suspect we did not fully understand the risks or have any tools if there was a fire. Likewise, in the military we regularly cooked inside tents, snow holes and shelters. Acceptable risk.
Seeking views and evidence
I was interested in finding out the current views on cooking inside a tent. Postings on facebook, seeking advice and ideas, “I’m looking at running an advanced expedition course for young people. One of the skills will be safely cooking in your tent, under the fly sheet. Any views on this?” raised many interesting perspectives.
Most critics could not go beyond, “don’t do it”, “they will burn to death”, “it’s not allowed”, One very vocal critic was from British Columbia had an interesting insight, “have to learn about bear caches, actually another reason we don’t have youth cook in tents”.
Some postings had major concerns about carbon monoxide poisoning. After exhaustive research this is only a major problem if you have a BBQ smouldering in your tent with no ventilation. Most modern gas stoves produce little CO gas, and with good ventilation minimal risk.
Tragedy in Knoydart
One post showed some incredibly interesting insight, “Many years ago a DofE Gold Expedition from school chose to cook in their tent as appalling weather conditions in Knoydart. Sadly their stove was knocked and one of the lads ended up with horrific 1st degree burns. They were quite a few miles from nearest inhabited houses and it was pre mobile phones, etc so whilst a couple looked after the injured party one of them made it through the terrible weather over rough ground in the dark to get help. Lad/s were awarded for bravery but goes back to the question as to whether or not this could have been avoided if they had been trained to safely use the flysheet entrance as shelter to cook under pre exped or if the accident would have happened anyway.
The reality is that if camping wild and the weather is that bad the temptation will be to cook under the fly so if youngsters were trained how to do this safely perhaps better than not at all….however, the lack of experience remains an issue and if an accident happened and they had been shown how to cook in their tent would this be seen by a court as encouragement to do so? Some pretty strict parameters/rules would need to be stipulated when undertaking risk assessments. But on the whole I DO think youngsters need to learn about such skills and the inherent dangers, more for their own futures in the outdoors than for DofE”
Managing the inherent risks
I’m very passionate about Benefit and Risk Assessments (BRA’s) as it allows you to analyse a task or activity somewhat objectively and how you can control it and make it as afe as possible. So I carried out a BRA for “cooking inside the flysheet of a tent”.
My Benefit and Risk Assessment
From this process it became apparent that we could carefully teach young people to cook within a tent as long as,
“Cooking in a tent should be seen as a ‘last resort’ and not a regular practice”
So to teach young people to cook inside their tent a number of key things have to be understood and in place to ensure it is as safe as possible.
- Clear rational for doing it – training for last resort not as ‘encouragement’ to do so
- A Clear Benefit and Risk Assessment – more importantly the young people needed to understand it
- Manage Carbon Monoxide – understand the signs of CO poisoning and how to deal with it
- Managing condensation – it could become a ‘rain forest’ in the tent with out proper ventilation
- Clear tent routines – kit away (this is the greatest fire risk)
- Choice of tent and stoves – no portable BBQs, cooking under the flysheet not in the inner tent
- Actions on – what to do if it all goes horribly wrong
Expedition chef weekend
In February 2020 we ran an expedition chef weekend with the aim to improving the quality of food on expeditions. Using different cooking techniques, we made bread, vacuum packed meals, stews, snacks, and soups.
As part of this training the young people cooked two meals inside the tent – under close supervision after they had written their own risk assessment, and each tent had a CO monitor.
The participants were far more confident in cooking using stoves and were very creative. Some were confident in cooking within a tent some not so – but as I explained when there is no adult to defer to or when they are adults they need to balance the benefit with the risk.
Lessons learnt:
Risk aware or risk averse? A lot of people are very risk averse – would rather avoid risk altogether. However by considering the Benefits as well as the Risks I think you make people more risk aware and better able to control the risk or not to take the risk.
Sharing BRA’s. What was incredibly insightful was sharing and getting young people to write their own BRA, it took time and they needed guidance but it is important aspect of the learning process for them to understanding potential risk and being able to manage it. It is what is done now in schools.
Perceptions. Cooking in tents will always be seen as a very high-risk venture, for some a risk too far. In fact the BRA without control measures does emphasis this. But having the correct training and control measures in place does reduce these risks greatly to a manageable level.
Teaching – tent cooking. Some ‘professionals’ might see training for this as rather flippant and unnecessary but surely we need to prepare our young people for the time when we are not around and adulthood. As a trainer it again emphasises the need for the invisible safety bubble around trainees that we must have until we are confident they can cope. Simple things like CO monitors, close supervision, fire extinguishers, first aid etc. The additional BRA control measures
In conclusion
This has been an interesting process and journey. As I delved into greater depth there is a growing culture of risk aversion to avoid harm and litigation. But young people need to understand inherent danger and be able to manage it – even things like cooking in a tent. For you can guarantee in appalling weather conditions in Knoydart people will look at the comparative safety of their tent and think why not? I would and have!
So, “Should we teach young people to understand risk?” Yes, without a doubt, but only if you have the experience and understand the risks and able to create a safe learning environment!
“But on the whole I DO think youngsters need to learn about such skills and the inherent dangers, more for their own futures in the outdoors than for DofE”
