As an adrenaline-seeking, skydiving, surfing, adventure junkie, I’ve encountered quite a few hairy situations in my lifetime. Getting out of these predicaments sometimes requires clean water, a compass and bear spray, and other times simply a good beard trimmer. The reality is that whether I’m taking my next big jump, taking in a jungle expedition or just taking a day off, I need to take care of my body, and that includes grooming. Living a life of adventure requires me to maintain my beard on-the-go, and for this, I rely on my Wahl Lithium Ion Trimmer. It has a long battery life and the power I need to make things a little less hairy. Here are some situations that required more than just a good grooming regimen:

Hairy Situation #1: Night Hike Gone Awry

I traveled to Zion National Park to attempt a very advanced hike that looks out over the entire park. It’s kind of dangerous. You have to scale the cliffs and hang onto chains in order to ascend.

I got to the hiking site pretty late and the sun was setting. Most people would think, “eh, I’ll wait until tomorrow,” but not me. I wanted to shoot astrophotography, the Milky Way was shining bright and I wanted to shoot the valley lit up down below. So I parked, grabbed my gear and my headlamp and headed out on the trail. I didn’t bring my phone with me because I had limited service, it was dying and I would only be gone for about an hour—big mistake.

My headlamp started flickering, and eventually went out. Without my phone, I had zero light aside from the shining night sky, which although beautiful, does not suffice as a light source. So, I was alone, on the side of a cliff, at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday evening. I didn’t want to give up, so I continued to climb, feeling my way up the mountain. Somehow, I made it to the lookout spot. I sat there for about an hour taking photos and I got great shots, but then it was 3 a.m., dark and I didn’t know my way around. Ultimately, I decided to curl up against a tree (luckily it was still warm out) and sleep. I slept soundly through the night and was woken up by two hikers at sunrise. It was finally bright enough that I could make my way back down safely and return to my car.

In hindsight, hiking a trail you’ve never been on where wild and potentially dangerous animals live, in the dark, without a phone, probably isn’t the brightest idea I’ve had.

Hairy Situation #2: Dead-air Bear Fly

I dreamt about doing a Halloween dead-air jump for a long time. A dead-air jump is from a hot air balloon and since there’s no motor, it’s completely silent and you’re barely moving, so the air around you is still. It’s a different experience than jumping out of an airplane, where there’s wind gushing around you, it’s super loud and your cheeks are flopping everywhere. Dead-air jumps are a little bit eerier, so of course, I wanted to do one on Halloween, and in costume.

I decided to jump in a bear costume. I did my research and found a company that had a very realistic, movie-grade costume that I could rent. When it arrived at my house, I tried it on and realized I was now wearing bear paw gloves, which aren’t great for grabbing things, and I had this huge bear head on with a little slit that you could hardly see out of.

So you may be thinking, “How are you going to jump out of the hot air balloon and pull your parachute when you’re blind and you don’t have hands?” Well, I didn’t think much of it at the time…

So, I get up in the hot-air balloon and am next in line to jump, and I started thinking, “Hmm, this is really dangerous,” which is probably a little too late to be having those thoughts. So, I jumped. Within 2-3 seconds I was reaching for my parachute and I could hardly feel it behind me. I finally found it and pulled, but my bridle got wrapped around my leg, so my parachute was wrapped around my foot. The cherry-on-top was that it was so windy that my bear head was ripped off and flew away. I thought to myself, at least I looked cool doing it because now everyone could see my fresh trim and smiling face. Seriously, though, I found myself wearing half a bear costume and free-falling out of the sky.

But I kept kicking my leg and eventually, my parachute became untangled. My parachute opened and I drifted down to the ground to make a safe landing. I had to sit there for a minute and think, what the heck just happened? Definitely one of the scariest Halloweens I’ve had to date.

Hairy Situation #3: Stuck in the Sky

A few years ago, I flew out to Panama with a friend to explore and experience the country. While there, we decided to do a night skydive in nothing but our birthday suits. Little did we know we were going to encounter a real rough landing over the beach where a live concert and bonfire were taking place. As the sun was going down, we went up in the sky preparing for the jump. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a language barrier between us and the pilot and there was a miscommunication.

We take off and it’s usually a relatively quick process to get up high enough to jump. But we were in the sky for upwards of 45 minutes and never got the green light to jump. So we’re 10,000 feet up with the doors open, and we’re freezing cold. We finally asked the pilot, “Hey, can we jump?” because it was almost dark at this point. We then realized the miscommunication. Unbeknownst to us, he thought we wanted to do a sunset flight tour over the island.

So we ended up doing the jump, but I really wanted to snap a picture and wasn’t checking my height as closely. You’re supposed to pull your parachute at 3,500 feet and when I looked, we were at 1,500 feet. I immediately pulled the shoot and came down a little faster and harder than we were supposed to. But that wasn’t the embarrassing part. That came when we found ourselves dropping right into a huge techno rave on the beach—nude. It was definitely very dangerous, but one of the coolest experiences of my life. For those of you reading, do not try this at home.

No matter the situation I find myself in, one thing stays constant: my need to groom. Over time I’ve learned that an unruly beard can make a hairy situation even hairier, so I rely on my Wahl trimmer to clean up between adventures. While it may be tough to stay fresh, clean and trimmed on-the-go, I know I can count on Wahl to make traveling while maintaining my look as simple as possible.

As an adventure junkie, Slater Trout trusts Wahl products for his trips, travels and unexpected situations. Whether you find yourself on the edge of a hot air balloon or just on the edge of your seat, check out Wahl’s line of grooming tools and new wet goods to help seize the day.