Abandoned Hikers, a new trend?

[MichaelJ]

I finally slogged my way through this entire thread, and if one thing was abundantly clear it was that everyone has different expectations of what it means to hike any other way but solo.

I may post that I'm going to do a particular hike, and would welcome along company. I am not taking any responsibility as a "leader" of that hike. I'm going to make the trip on the route I intended, and while I will of course assist in an emergency or injury situation, in an ideal situation I'm there to hike my own hike, and so are you.

I also may post that I'm organizing and planning a trip, arranging routes and hikers and acting in a proper leadership role, coordinating the group, keeping people together, waiting for everyone to start, leading, sweeping, bailing out together, the whole deal discussed elsewhere in this thread.

The fact is, in my opinion either is okay, and the person whose hike it is has the right to choose which way it is. Know what it is up front; ask, communicate. If it's not what you're looking for in a group trip, don't do it. But you need to respect their plan, because otherwise we'll all end up hiking solo. Just because we're in the presence of someone else does not mean we can abdicate responsibility for ourselves.

 

[Oldmanwinter]

Here’s a question that I haven’t seen yet. How do you tell someone tactfully/compassionately that the hike you have planned is way beyond their ability

You can say what my wife said to me. "I ain't dragging you all the way up that mountain, pick something smaller".

 

[woodstrider]

Interesting thread. I see that a nerve has been hit by the shear number of replies. Here's my two cents- for what it is worth.

I don't believe there is this kind of problem- hikers being abandoned- when the group all know eachother well. I believe this usually arises in a group of people who are strangers, more or less, to eachother, as in a club hike.

I believe that when there is a group hike it is the leader's responsibility to keep the group together and if there is a slow member of the group to weed that person out very early and send them back ( if they are not keeping up with the stated pace of the outing) or to amend the itinery, but in any respect it is imperitive to keep every one together. This sometimes means that the leader must scarifice their own goals for the greater good of the group. I also will acknowledge that often the leader can not control everyone on the outing. Being a leader is hard, and few will take up the role. Often you are critized no matter what you do. I remember the last time that I led an outing I had someone in the group who was very slow and he set the pace for the group. As a consequence the group got out of the woods several hours late, but the hike was completed. Not to go into it too much, but that person was not forthcoming with his physical condition, we were on a bushwhack, and I did not notice his condition until well into the hike. He did say that he wanted to complete this hike to set a "personal best" record and to this day I will say that I am happy to have been able to do this for him. One member later soundly and negatively critized me in a chat room. This person was also woefully unprepared- as it turned out, lacking food and water for an arduous published hike. I suppose that in retrospect I should have cut the hike short in order to get out of the woods in a more reasonable time frame. Anyway upshot is I will no longer lead strangers. Period.

Thanks for letting me "rant"- get this off my chest.

Happy trails