Have you ever rescued anyone?

[egilbe]

I talked a guy from Florida out of hiking to Pinkham Notch from Grafton Notch state park in early May this year. He planned on doing it in the two days he had left after his Wilderness First Responder class. My GF and I just came off the top of Old Speck, slogging and post-holing in two to four feet of snow. He was on his way up, wearing sandals and shorts. We asked if he had any snowshoes or micro spikes. He said no. Asked him if he had any boots or shoes. He said no. We told him "Don't do it". It will take you four or five days if you were dressed for it. Probably saved his life. That counts, right?

 

[Bushwhack]

Went up to visit a buddy working in the huts a few years ago- got up there to find him in a wheelchair with a busted ankle. as a storm hit, he got word that a worker from his hut was three miles down the trail on the ground next to their eighty pound pack, vomiting. they had tried to get back into hiking too soon after being sick, and were now hurling in the middle of a rain storm on an empty trail. I went back down the mountain to help them out, as my friend with a busted ankle was the only other hut worker there. I found the sick hut worker soaked to the bone and miserable, trying to drag their packboard by hand so that they could rest every ten feet or so. It took some convincing to get them to accept help. otherwise, I fear that they might have arrived at the hut around midnight, if they made it at all. they finally agreed to let me take about sixty pounds of the food off their pack, and then they would carry the remaining twenty. they insisted on me leaving them and going at my own pace, so I hiked about a hundred feet ahead the whole time and kept checking to make sure they were in site.

potential "rescue" that didn't happen recently- I was hiking in chilly rain to the kinsmans from franconia notch, and on my way back toward lonesome lake, I ran across a young man who was hiking to the kinsmans wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. he had no pack, water bottle, nothing but his cotton clothes. he was soaked, and commenced to shivering as soon as he stopped to talk with me. I strongly advised that he not go on, as he looked to be cold already, but he insisted he was going to push through the hike. I let him go on, then followed him up to near kinsman pond. I set up a tarp on a steep part of the woods overlooking the trail from about 200 feet away, and waited to make sure he made it back down. creepy? maybe. It gave me some peace of mind, though. he hiked back down half an hour later, and as far away as he was, I could see he was shivering violently. I followed him along fishin' jimmy trail until he was back at his car in the parking lot. What would you folks do? be the creep, or let him make his own mistake? badger him further? Advice?