Hypothermic Hikers Rescued in the Pemi

[TEO]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/11/24/metro/siblings-massachusetts-new-hampshire-rescued-franconia/

Fortunately they did do some things correctly. However, both hikers falling into the water TWICE suggests poor decision-making.

 

[sierra]

Water crossings in the cold months are one of the most dangerous parts of backcountry travel. Personally, if I can't rock hop fairly shallow water, it's not a route I will be on. Sounds like they did their best, but falling in twice? I might have tried to avoid that.

 

[JustJoe]

Non-paywall Fish and Game.

https://nhfishgame.com/2024/11/25/two-hikers-rescued-from-lincoln-brook-trail/

 

[CaptCaper]

These reports year after year are always so sketchy. Did these guys have hiking poles for balance? use micro spikes over the icy rocks? who knows the missing facts as usual. So I arm chair quarterback on what they should of done or had and probably didn't knowing hikers I see on the trail. At least they had Inreach.

 

[JoshandBaron]

At least they had Inreach.

Which they turned off after initial contact with DOC, preventing any contact with rescuers.

 

[KRooney]

This is not a comment on this story of an 18 and 20 yo brother/sister who needed rescuing, but is a question on the use of poles - I wonder at what age people begin to see the advantages poles give you, and tend to start using them regularly? 40's? 50's? Older?

 

[Rhody Seth]

This is not a comment on this story of an 18 and 20 yo brother/sister who needed rescuing, but is a question on the use of poles - I wonder at what age people begin to see the advantages poles give you, and tend to start using them regularly? 40's? 50's? Older?

I've been using them for as long as I've been hiking. As a teen, I had a golf club where the head broke off - I remember using that for many a hiking trip.

 

[KRooney]

I've been using them for as long as I've been hiking. As a teen, I had a golf club where the head broke off - I remember using that for many a hiking trip.

In my experience/observation I've rarely seen a teenager using poles in my 30-40 years of hiking.

 

[JToll]

I started using poles in my 60’s while hiking in the Castle Ravine area. There are so many stream crossings in that area.

 

[maineguy]

I started using poles in my 60’s while hiking in the Castle Ravine area. There are so many stream crossings in that area.

Absolutely. I never used poles as a teen. I don't think they were even a thing then, maybe the occasional hiking staff. However, in my late 30s on one hike with a lot of water crossings and after a heavy rain, I used a hiking staff. Been using one ever since. Just the one pole. In winter, I use ski poles with snowshoe baskets.

 

[ImYourHuckleberry]

This is not a comment on this story of an 18 and 20 yo brother/sister who needed rescuing, but is a question on the use of poles - I wonder at what age people begin to see the advantages poles give you, and tend to start using them regularly? 40's? 50's? Older?

I suspect (just taking a WAG) that the lack of traction was equally or more to blame with ending up in the drink 2x each versus lack of poles. I have plenty of friends that don't use poles and they haven't ever ended up in the drink when hiking with me.

 

[Grey J]

I started using poles when I hit 70. I don't use them on the flats and rarely going uphill. I find them quite useful on the downhill and at stream crossings though. I finished the NH48 as a "hands-free" hiker aka pole-less.

 

[Ear Drum]

In my 20s/30s, I would occasionally use a single wooden hiking staff, a good strong piece of found wood. But I was only hiking occasionally. I think the wood staff had a kind of cool factor for younger me, wizard-like or old man of the mountains, I suppose.
Since my mid 40s, a decade ago and when I started hiking regularly, I have always used poles, proper trekking poles. I use them constantly, short and long hikes, up down and flat, easy or hard. Part of the appeal is I like keeping my hands a bit elevated - I don't enjoy that feeling of blood pooling in my hands when I don't have poles.

 

[Ear Drum]

These reports year after year are always so sketchy. Did these guys have hiking poles for balance? use micro spikes over the icy rocks? who knows the missing facts as usual. So I arm chair quarterback on what they should of done or had and probably didn't knowing hikers I see on the trail. At least they had Inreach.

About the curiosity with the mishaps of others, we can all learn from their mistakes. It's good to know what went wrong, so as to be aware of it and avoid it.

 

[sierra]

I started using trekking poles when they first came out. In fact, very few people used them and many people asked me why I had "ski poles" hiking. When I descend technical terrain, I strap one to my pack and just use one, so I can manage my dogs lead.

 

[DayTrip]

I started using trekking poles when they first came out. In fact, very few people used them and many people asked me why I had "ski poles" hiking. When I descend technical terrain, I strap one to my pack and just use one, so I can manage my dogs lead.

As a kid casually hiking with friends and family it was cool to have a "hiking stick" but I don't think I ever really used it in any sort of utilitarian function. It usually turned into the poking stick for the fire at the end of the day.

I didn't honestly know trekking poles were a thing until I saw someone with them on Moosilauke in the infancy of my "serious" hiking career back in 2012. I went and bought some almost immediately and always have them now. So many uses and benefits. I suspect a lot of younger backpackers have them now as much of for their ultralight shelters as they do walking.

 

[ImYourHuckleberry]

I've used poles ever since Reinhold Messner told me they were awesome sometime in the '80s.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Before trekking poles became a thing, I began hiking with ski poles as a teenager in the 1960s as that is what all the cool kids at John Caldwell’s Putney Ski School in Vermont were doing for offseason dry-land training. Like Sierra, I was mocked by other hikers on an early climbing trip in Wyoming’s Wind River Range (ex., hey, buddy, you missed the ski season that ended a couple months ago!”).

 

[KRooney]

I've used poles ever since Reinhold Messner told me they were awesome sometime in the '80s.

Would you care to share with us how you happened to be in the company of Mr. Messner?

 

[ImYourHuckleberry]

Would you care to share with us how you happened to be in the company of Mr. Messner?

I wish. He was what we would now call a brand ambassador for Leki, and he also wrote about using them in at least one of his books.

I did happen to run into Alex Lowe one time at All Outdoors in Manchester and gave him the scoop on the current (at the time) ice conditions at Frankenstein Cliffs.