Benjamin Spillman

No one knows better than Ned Tibbits that wilderness can heal the mind.

In the past five decades, Tibbits has hiked the entire Pacific Crest and part of the Continental Divide trails. He’s traversed the Sierra Nevada high country on the John Muir Trail. And he’s toured the Tahoe Rim Trail on snow.

“You can’t go into the mountains without feeling something deeper and bigger than you are,” said Tibbits, 57, of Reno.

But Tibbits also has spent much of that time in the wilderness as a wilderness ranger, a paramedic and a member of ski patrol and search and rescue teams. So he knows the same wilderness that soothes the soul can be brutal on the body when things go bad.

And he’s worried that’s going to be happening a lot more after the release of “Wild,” the movie starring Reese Witherspoon based on a memoir about author Cheryl Strayed’s 1995 hike on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Upset about her mother’s death and facing her own life troubles, Strayed, then 26, hit the trail to find solace despite lacking wilderness experience or safety expertise. Although Strayed didn’t run into tragedy and gained fame and fortune from the memoir, Tibbits says others might not be so lucky.

Tibbits says an increase in hiking permits, search-and-rescue calls and human-caused forest fires followed publication of the book and he’s worried even more people will venture into the wilderness unprepared after the movie release.

“More people are going to see a movie than read a book,” he said. “There is going to be a huge jump.”

Angelina Venezia, a publicist for Strayed, said the author wasn’t available for an interview on the subject.

Tibbits, director of Mountain Education safety and skills courses, is hopeful people inspired to head into the wilderness will remember to be safe.

He identified three areas on which people should focus if they want to survive long enough in the back country to benefit from its soothing powers.

Aspiring adventurers should start by exercising their brains, he says.

“That’s the most important tool you have got,” he said.

Tibbits said people should think about what they want to do, be it complete a long hike, climb a summit or kayak a stretch of river, and research what it will take, physically, to actually accomplish it. If for example, the peak a person wants to summit requires a level of climbing they’re not comfortable attempting it is probably a good idea to reconsider the trip.

Once people know what they’re planning to do they should prepare. If the goal is to complete a long hike through a mountain range it is a good idea to start doing lots of short hikes over whatever hills or mountains are nearby to make sure the body is ready.

Finally, Tibbits said people should take time to know themselves. And that only happens through steps one and two.

The notion of getting comfortable with one’s own wilderness tolerances and preferences is more than a matter of taste and comfort, Tibbits said. It’s a matter of survival.

For example, warm, comfortable sleep is more important to some people than others. But if someone for whom warm, comfortable sleep is important bases their gear selection on advice from an ultralight hiker who values a light pack over everything else he or she might wind up with a sleeping bag that is insufficient.

Bad sleep can lead to fatigue which can contribute to bad decisions. And bad decisions can result in injury or worse.

For all the wonders solitude and beautiful scenery can do for the soul, people who get in over their heads are going to have a bad experience if things go bad, Tibbits said.

For people hurt on the inside, he said, “The trail will help you, but you have to be safe out there long enough to let the mountains heal you.”