Hypothermia was determined to be the caused of Mitzie Clements' death/NPS HO

Hypothermia can be an insidious malady. In short, its onset is caused by loss of body heat. So much loss that your body can't generate enough heat to offset the loss. When that happens, without quick care, you go into a downward spiral that can include confusion and clumsiness and lead to death. That's what happened to an Ohio woman who got lost in Great Smoky Mountains National Park last fall.

Key to avoiding hypothermia is dressing in layers, having some food, and carrying a daypack with an extra layer so when you get cold, you can put it on. Carrying matches or a lighter also isn't a bad idea, in case you have to spend a night out in the cold. Also key is hiking with others who might notice the onset of hypothermia and act to deal with it.

Mitzie Sue “Susan” Clements, 53, of Cleves, Ohio, and her daughter were hiking in Great Smoky last fall near Clingmans Dome. The two were on the Forney Ridge Trail, near Andrews Bald, when they became separated. When Clements failed to meet her daughter at the Clingmans Dome parking area, a search was launched. It was a week before her body was found, barely two miles from the parking area in the cold water of Huggins Creek.

Hypothermia can play cruel tricks on the mind, and the wet, foggy weather, with night-time lows in the 40s, was something Clements was not dressed for. She was wearing a light sweater, with leggings and nylon workout pants, as well as a clear rain poncho, according to the park. 

According to the medical examiner's report, complications of hypothermia and "exposure to adverse environmental conditions" led to her death. That Clements had become confused seemed evident by the fact that she had stripped to the waist and taken off her shoes while moving through the drainage and its thick rhododendron understory.

"The water temperature of the creek is cold, and the nighttime temperatures have been in the lower 40s, with rain falling the first three days decedent went missing," wrote Emmitt B. Wiggins, the medical examiner for Swain County, North Carolina. "Erratic walking pattern, and paradoxical undressing suggestive, and consistent with, a hypothmeric event. Decedent's clothing not sufficient for the adverse weather and she was not carrying a pack with food, water, or means of shelter or other layers of clothing. There are no signs of significant trauma."

The body of an Ohio woman who went missing in Great Smoky Mountains National Park was found in steep, rugged terrain similar to this/ Jeff Wadley, Backcountry Search and Rescue.