Dry River Rescue - Deep Snow

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I have been sent to jail on more then one occasion from these groups. It can get frustrating the lack of effort people put into trip planning before asking questions on FB.

In an effort to prove a point about people failing to do the simplest research, I got booted from one 4k group for asking if I should use snowshoes or spikes when it was obvious neither was needed. And that's how you fine folks ended up with me.
 
From the "successful" trip report:
"We were lucky that we were prepared with fitness and most of the proper gear (snowshoes would have been nice) but I worry that others won't be so lucky."
 
Oh, I so hope this rescue ends up on North Woods Law.

This site may have low traffic, but there are few sites that can match the experience level among the members here. It's a nice refuge from the " Is Mt. Washington safe to climb?" crowd.

Amen.
 
The new generation has one resource for their knowledge, their phones and the groups they join online. There is some bad advice being handed out and people take it as gospel if they read it online. Anywho, I could go on and on, but I suspect I'm preaching to the choir on this site. This site may have low traffic, but there are few sites that can match the experience level among the members here. It's a nice refuge from the " Is Mt. Washington safe to climb?" crowd.

Here's a bit of input from a newcomer 'millenial' (though I don't really identify as one - I am right on the edge and have not been to Facebook in a long time). I've been lurking and reading VFTT for several years, it kept popping up all the time in my research about the Whites, winter hiking, also general hiking advice. I really appreciate the low signal-to-noise ratio, the risk analysis and aversion, and how seriously members here approach going out in the wilderness. I have not seen the advice on Facebook but I can't imagine it's very different from the kind of advice you would get on Reddit - college-level, gung-ho "we are so outdoorsy!". Sneakers and shorts on Washington (been there, in retrospect - got lucky the weather was amazing), a small bottle of water and no hat in Southwest deserts. I have come to realize that a lot of the advice out there needs to be taken with a grain of salt, even some of the advice here, though 99% of the time VFFT members can be trusted - and I appreciate that.

From that Reddit link:
we didn't have a beacon so our only option was to camp for the night and find our way out the next day

That is a very powerful statement and a glimpse into the mentality of having the PLB button to fall back onto.
 
From that Reddit link:


That is a very powerful statement and a glimpse into the mentality of having the PLB button to fall back onto.

Jesus you'd think it was the end of the world to spend an unplanned night in the woods. Crazy!

Prior to the Push-Button-Come-Get-Me era an unplanned night out was not a big deal, at least in non-winter condx. Hunker down, brew up and stay warm until daylight. Sleep if you're lucky. What's so hard about that?

If folks got billed $1,000 per PLB push they might be more into spending an unplanned night in the woods and walking out the next morning.

Sheesh.

cb
 
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