Lost Hiker on Moosilaukee

[peakbagger]

The news had a report this AM. that a Dartmouth College student is lost on the mountain. Reported hiking with a group and didnt have adequate gear and turned around on Saturday. That is the last they saw of the hiker.

The weather is definitely taking a turn for the worst this afternoon into tomorrow.

 

[DayTrip]

Search and rescue is definitely getting a lot of work the past week or two. Incidents like this seem to be popping up every day. I was surprised that this kid was allowed to attempt to return on his own if it was a Dartmouth sponsored event. Aren't their trip leaders on those? Seems like a big mistake letting an unprepared hiker head back by himself. Hopefully it ends well but this one sounds ominous...

 

[jniehof]

https://www.wmur.com/article/crews-search-since-saturday-night-for-missing-hiker-on-mt-moosilauke/27447707
https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2019/05/dartmouth-senior-missing-in-vicinity-of-mount-moosilauke

Please do try to leave the area clear for the search teams.

 

[Nessmuk]

Real guides, at least the ones I know who are trained and licensed here in NY, are trained to never break up a group, especially to not let one person to leave on their own. The leader should have surveyed each trip member for gear and preparedness before setting out on the trek. No one goes who is not completely prepared. Start as a team, finish, or turn around as a team. I wouldn't be surprised if there were legal consequences.

 

[jniehof]

https://www.wmur.com/article/missing-dartmouth-college-hiker-found-alive-officials-say/27452724

 

[peakbagger]

Great news. Hopefully DOC reviews their policies.

Reminds me somewhat of the lost hiker we encountered last year on Moosilaukee. I expect he would have become a lost hiker if we hadn't helped him out as he was clueless without a signal on his cellphone.

 

[skiguy]

This is not the first incident of a College Outing Club screwing it up. Unfortunately there seems to be a lack of appropriate leadership training and vetting of qualified leaders in many of these programs. It seems like a no brainer to have at least sent someone with this individual back down. The DOC has been around for as long as anyone when it comes to Collegiate Outdoor Clubs. If this is the bar then Alumni take notice.

 

[JoshandBaron]

Have fun. http://doc.dartmouth.edu/wiki/Dartmouth_Outing_Club_policies

 

[peakbagger]

Meanwhile a few folks got stranded overnight in the Mt Isolation area and had to be rescued.

 

[DayTrip]

Meanwhile a few folks got stranded overnight in the Mt Isolation area and had to be rescued.

What is that now, like 5 incidents in the past two weeks? Good grief.

 

[richard]

What is that now, like 5 incidents in the past two weeks? Good grief.

Here’s the newspaper article. https://www.unionleader.com/news/sa...cle_205684a1-d8f7-5a6d-8a90-3963b6f2317e.html

 

[Nessmuk]

I wish they'd also note that these two were in the wilderness, which means minimal trail markings most of the time.

What difference does that make? When you head out on a trek, you are responsible to know what you are getting yourself into, wilderness or not, snow conditions, navigation, terrain and elevation changes, water hazards, weather, trails or lack of, emergency procedures and exits, all of it. If you are part of an organized trip. the organizer and/or the trip leader is responsible for all of that and the complete safety and safe return of all trip members, It never hurts for individual trip members to know their own limitations and safe procedures and required gear for the location as well.

 

[Nessmuk]

In 25 years of being on SAR teams, half of them as a crew boss, I never recall being called on an extended SAR incident in which more than a single subject was involved. DEC rangers sometimes are called out for wilderness confused groups involving more than one person (always quickly resolved), but the large scale "campaign" type incidents that call out trained volunteers have always been for just a single solo person. I believe there is a lesson to be had in that fact.

 

[jniehof]

F&G release: https://nhfishgame.com/2019/05/13/missing-dartmouth-student-located/

 

[Mike P.]

What difference does that make? When you head out on a trek, you are responsible to know what you are getting yourself into, wilderness or not, snow conditions, navigation, terrain and elevation changes, water hazards, weather, trails or lack of, emergency procedures and exits, all of it. If you are part of an organized trip. the organizer and/or the trip leader is responsible for all of that and the complete safety and safe return of all trip members, and it never hurts for trip members to know their own limitations and safe procedures and required gear as well.

Darn, your old! (I agree with everything you said by the way)

As hikes more and more are being organized (not planned) on social media and people are more concerned about their Go-Pro, their camera so they can get good pictures and video for their Social Feeds, then they are with conditions and reading anything, like a guidebook, that tells people that the higher elevations may still have significant amounts of snow in May and June. (they actually believe there is a monorail, public transportation, on many mountains that runs from 3,000 feet to treeline)

I imagine some social media planned hikes have leaders who lead, however, others just organize and take no responsibility for actually leadership, managing group size, group decisions taking care of each other.


Was the Moosilaukee trip an actual DOC event or another Dartmouth Group Sponsored hike or just some Dartmouth students? Dave, are you still involved with the DOC? How many Social media hiking groups have pages of information and warnings in the front the same way that the WMG has?

 

[iAmKrzys]

As hikes more and more are being organized (not planned) on social media and people are more concerned about their Go-Pro, their camera so they can get good pictures and video for their Social Feeds, then they are with conditions and reading anything, like a guidebook, that tells people that the higher elevations may still have significant amounts of snow in May and June.

What's a guidebook? Is this some kind of alternative to Instagram?

 

[KV]

Have fun. http://doc.dartmouth.edu/wiki/Dartmouth_Outing_Club_policies

From that linked policy information: "All trips and activities in the Dartmouth Outing Club are planned, organized, and led by Dartmouth students. In order to ensure that DOC leaders are capable of dealing with the many unpredictable situations which may occur on an outdoor trip, the Club requires that all members become proficient in appropriate skills before leading trips." (Bold mine)

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you think that with the bolded segment a trip leader would not let one person leave the group? Of course, this is based on speculation that it was indeed a "DOC outing" and not simply a bunch of DOC kids out for a hike. There is a distinction.

 

[TCD]

Older event, but a good example of what can happen when one person (especially an inexperienced person) is allowed to separate from the group:

http://vertumnus.courts.state.ny.us/claims/html/2000-007-055.html

As I understand it, evidence indicated that the lone hiker was hurrying down the trail to try to catch up to the group. At the summit of Snowy, there are a few very nice cliff top lookouts that are reached by pretty good, but brushy paths. If you were in a hurry and not paying attention, and made a wrong turn down one of these paths, it would be pretty easy to rush through a patch of brush and find yourself falling. Which is apparently what happened.

An aggravating factor in the 1996 Snowy incident is that apparently the hiker separated from the group at the summit, but the group and group leaders did not notice that he was missing until they got all the way back to the parking lot hours later.

 

[Nessmuk]

I was referring to the Isolation pair (noted in the article Richard posted) - not the Moosilauke group. The difference it makes is that people reading about the incident might become informed about the distinction between 'normal' trail and wilderness trails. So, looking ahead to try to reduce future rescues.

I think I covered that within my post. Pre trip planning and awareness.

 

[sierra]

I think many group hikes thrown together on Social Media are accidents waiting to happen. I'm of the thought, that no matter what group you join, you need to have the skillset to survive on your own. I know this standard is not being used for a lot of group hikes. If the **** hits the fan, yes you can blame the group leader, but everyone should own a certain level of responsibility. If I hired a guide to do a climb, my preparations for the climb would be very detailed in regards to the route, the conditions possible and navigation of the route if it fell on me. Not to mention having all the appropriate gear needed. This mindset set reminds me of the Everest 96 disaster. Both guides became disabled, this left the reaming team members unable to fend for themselves. Granted the Whites are not Everest, but the point is still valid. If your leading a hike, you need to require a gear list and know the skillset of the people joining you. If you have people that are weak on skills and they have to descend, you need to assign a skilled member to accompany them down at the very least.