missing hiker - Lancaster, NH

[rup]

Apparently on MT Madison?

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/4c7c36ee7d46404d88574aa855246d6d/NH--Hiker-Search

 

[Raven]

Apparently on MT Madison?

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/4c7c36ee7d46404d88574aa855246d6d/NH--Hiker-Search

Hope she is okay. Conditions had to be otherworldly on Madison last night.

 

[peakbagger]

The conditions were downright nasty at the base of Mt Madison, the winds were whipping and it was -11 degrees at 1400 feet this AM. The winds cranked up all night and seemed to peak around 3:30 AM. Hopefully she dug a hole in the snow and will pop out this AM, although looking at the summits this AM I expect that it would be white out along the ridge line and the winds would make travel just about impossible.

I don't expect they will be able to use helicopters but I will keep and eye out this morning.

 

[carla]

Keep us posted. I can't imagine what it was like to spend a night outside at those temps. Scary....

 

[Peakbagr]

http://nhpr.org/post/hiker-missing-overnight-near-mount-Madison

 

[TCD]

nhpr link blocked by firwewall. Is there a summary? Thanks.

 

[sardog1]

No new info in the NHPR story except the specification that MRS has been assisting.

 

[DayTrip]

I certainly hope this all works out for the best but it continues to amaze me that people go out in these conditions, particularly alone, despite the obvious hazards. It appears from the related thread in Facebook that she was an experienced mountaineer but I keep asking myself WHY? 100+ mph winds, no visibility, 80-100 deg F wind chill. I get as your experience level increases you have to raise the bar to challenge yourself but there has to be a point where you call it a day. Is there any enjoyment value to that whatsoever?? Seemed like a doomed hike from the get go.

 

[dug]

Not my cup of the tea, more the wind than the cold. But, it's all relative. Some subset of society sees hiking in the winter, no matter the weather, as crazy. Some subset sees being in the woods, no matter the season, as crazy. Some subset can't even imagine getting off the coach long enough for their controller to go cold...

It's possible she was looking at it as a training mission or something for a larger mountain. That being said, not sure I agree with her reasoning here as that weather was just about as bad as what you could get anywhere. So, to do it alone? Or, possibly, she's already an accomplished mountain and got bit by the "...these are puny little 5,000' mountains" bug....

 

[DayTrip]

The related Facebook post on this is making me crazy. I find it nothing short of amazing that SARS doesn't drag dead bodies out of the woods every weekend.....

 

[peakbagger]

A friend who is/was an alpine guide in the area used to run a high mountain training trip based on a 3 day presidential traverse. It was for folks who were thinking of going on longer higher altitude expeditions to get their techniques down. He has a firm set of minimum weather guidelines that he based a go/no go decision. He had to cancel 3 trips in the same winter as the conditions were predicted to be too gnarly to make the trip despite the trip being oriented to hardcores. Generally Madison or Adams via Valley Way (my speculation on route) is considered a low exposure back up route. I have done winter hikes in the past on this route where I hoped the conditions would slack off during the hike, although it is well sheltered almost all the way to the hut, there is usually a fairly good indication that the weather is not getting better in the last stretch of woods and the walk to hut. I have turned back a couple of times in far less nasty conditions. It is also very easy to miss the turn into the woods on the way down and get sucked down into the stream bed which has been a source of S&Rs in the past. On these same trips as I have descended I have encountered several small groups with widely varying gear heading up as the weather deteriorated with forecasted conditions similar to this weekend who were determined to camp out above treeline. I generally attribute at least part of the those folks being of the mindset that they drove all the way up here, so they might as well go and they can always turn around if things get bad.
The other popular route, the Airline tends to go from sheltered to open in about 50 feet. I have thought in the past I was ready for breaking out of treeline on Airline and been surprised at the ferocity of the weather change in such a short distance. There is a bypass trail to the hut above this spot, (Upper Bruin?) but in high winds and zero visibility, I would not be able to find it and just heading left into the spruce and out of the wind would quickly turn into one continuous spruce trap. Given the recent snow and wind, I expect that would be no trace of this route

Hopefully this gets resolved positively and then I expect Fish and Game will weigh in on the negligent/reckless issue as well as other points and the value of the hike safe card. Considering that they used extreme weather conditions and solo hiking previously in a charge for rescue situation, I would expect that those two points will be discussed as well as others. I am surprised F&G actually did a S&R attempt Sunday night as I thought they had some SOPs in place with minimum weather limits where they can not go out. This has been done in the past and apparently was formalized during the Haas incident but I expect unlike a S&R, they had some sort of coordinates from the PLB, although different versions of PLBs provide different levels of accuracy so they assumed they could do a quick locate. Older versions apparently are located by triangulating from several satellites and have a poor resolution while newer versions have a GPS and send out actual coordinates.

 

[peakbagger]

Per WMUR the hiker was located deceased

http://www.wmur.com/news/rescuers-search-for-missing-hiker-near-mt-adams/31294362

 

[DayTrip]

Both of these brief articles made mention of 20 below zero, 60-80 mph winds and low visibility. Possibly those are the go/no-go levels?

 

[jniehof]

Older versions apparently are located by triangulating from several satellites and have a poor resolution while newer versions have a GPS and send out actual coordinates.

It's Doppler, not triangulation, but they require two tracks to confirm (or one Doppler + GPS signal). GPS block III is supposed to support PLB reception and geolocation based on time difference of arrival--one could think of it as "GPS in reverse" (multiple satellites receiving a signal and determining its location, vs. one receiver listening to multiple satellites to determine its location), although technically it's the direction GPS was designed to work originally.

Re: going out in these conditions. It was ten years ago (maybe more) when someone went out in fairly bad conditions for a solo Bonds traverse because he was in training for Everest and shaking down gear, skill, and conditioning. It's not uncommon. He didn't come back, either. The idea is that it's better to get in trouble on Bondcliff than Camp 3, but "better" is no guarantee. My condolences to family or friends who may be following here.

 

[RollingRock]

In any event, it's a sad story whenever a hiker dies up in the mountains...prepared or not. I stayed low for a hike yesterday due to the cold temps and winds...it was COLD even below tree-line! Why someone would want go up HIGH in these conditions is hard for me understand.

 

[Dana]

The report says she was found near Star Lake... only a few hundred yards from Madison hut. I know the hut's closed in the winter, but is there an emergency shelter there?

 

[KPMMBM]

a tell tale sign- this thread right next to the thread about Mt Washington weather records being set overnight. I just can't imagine the conditions this person encountered. Hats off to each and every SAR person involved

 

[peakbagger]

There is no emergency shelter at Madison Hut (Lake of clouds has one). There used to be a 3 sided alcove on the lee side of the shelter that worked remarkably well to get out of the wind. Unfortunately during the hut renovations this was removed. It was not designated emergency shelter just an oddity of construction. There is really no good spot to shelter out of the wind anymore. Unfortunately many folks have abused emergency shelters over the years and used them for campingop (and still do) so there are none except for Lakes. The door to Lakes frequently freezes open and it reeks of urine smell yet folks still camp there.

Some additional details from WMUR, the hikers husband dropped her off Sunday morning, she was planning to do a half presi (Madison, Adams, Jefferson & Washington) day hike and get picked up at Washington (they didn't say which trailhead). The exposure would have been far worse along the ridgeline with far poorer options for bailing so the trip plan was flawed from the start.

 

[DayTrip]

Some additional details from WMUR, the hikers husband dropped her off Sunday morning, she was planning to do a half presi (Madison, Adams, Jefferson & Washington) day hike and get picked up at Washington (they didn't say which trailhead).

SAY WHAT ?!?!? In that weather?? I am speechless.

 

[Driver8]

The one thing I'll conjecture in her defense is that, per the Obs hourly reports, at 5 am the conditions, for a very strong and experienced hiker such as she was, were not terrible - 35-ish mph winds and -4 F, probably much calmer down at 1200 feet elevation. By 10, conditions were deteriorating pretty rapidly. The track history from her PLB will give a better idea of what happened, whether she summited one or both of the peaks, was trying to retreat to shelter or to find the Valley Way down, whatever was the case.

I'd not go out into such conditions, but maybe she was well ready to turn back from submitting M or A, or both, or maybe she was trying to, and got injured. The location where they reportedly found her, per Mike Cherim on his FB page - he was on the S&R team - suggests she was trying to get out of the worst of the winds by descending the steep wall south of Star Lake. Maybe the fall she took, per Mike, was here, maybe before. She might have suffered multiple falls or injuries.

We'll likely learn more with time. It's sad that she got into such a bad situation - one would like to think she was not engaged here unreasonably, but it's hard to see how so, sorry to say.