Mt Monadnock Lost Hiker

[peakbagger]

Hike as a group, stay as a group

https://nhfishgame.com/2024/07/05/missing-hiker-mount-monadnock/

 

[DayTrip]

"His hiking companions had left him behind when Hejazi began struggling with the pace of his companions."

Probably needs some new friends.....

 

[NH2112]

How slow does someone have to be going the be too slow for the group on what, a 2.2 mile trail? I’m assuming it was on the uphill leg, but I seem to remember White Dot being pretty steep in places so it could easily slow someone down on the descent. But yeah, new hiking buddies.

 

[peakbagger]

I ran into a similar situation several years ago on Moosilaukee that could have turned into a similar headline. I think I posted about it but here it is again.

A friend and I decided to do a hike from Tunnel Brook Road via the Benton trail up to the summit and then north to the upper Beaver Brook junction, then down to new Ravine lodge via the Asquam Ridge trail. Soon after the Beaver Brook junction we had stopped to cut a blowdown and a college age guy who was fiddling with his cell phone came by and asked us if this trail headed to the lodge. He looked to be of middle eastern descent and English was not his primary language. (the hiker on Monadnock definitely has a foreign sounding name but I have not seen any reference to his spoken English skills). We pulled out a map and showed him where we were and where we were going. He acted like he understood and kept going down the trail. We soon caught up with him again and he again asked us if we were going to the lodge. We said yes, he kept playing with his cell phone but he had no service. He eventually got out of him that he had driven up from Mass with a couple of other folks and had been hiking with them to the summit and was going slower than they were. He caught up with them at the summit and was trying to catch his breath and they headed off back to their truck. He quickly dropped back and at some point, had headed down Asquam Ridge trail. His English was not good and it took a bit of questioning to figure out where they had started. We were consistently heading down towards the DOC lodge and he started asking if they had a phone. I think he was also out of water and we gave him some of ours. We did not know if there was phone available, but he insisted that the folks he was hiking with would be at the lodge. We got to the lodge and there was no cell service or phone or the other hikers. It was obvious he had never seen the lodge before. At that point we spent awhile questioning him and we guessed that his group had parked at Beaver Brook parking at Kinsman notch and the "lodge" this hiker was looking for was Beaver Brook Shelter. At that point we knew this kid was really confused and we insisted he come with us and I would drive him around to Beaver Brook. There is cell service once the highway breaks over the west side of the high point and he finally got in touch with the other hikers he had come up with. They obviously spoke english very well and we could hear them swearing at this hiker and telling him not to move an inch as they had been looking for him for hours. I finally grabbed the phone and explained where we were and we were going to drive past Beaver Brook trailhead anyhow to pick up our car at the end of Tunnel Brook Road. They were still pissed but agreed that that was acceptable. About 20 minutes later we pulled into the lot and the hiker recognized the truck and the two guys waiting there impatiently. Me and my friend did not get out to talk but it was obvious the other two were upset.

My guess was it was some sort of ride share board that brought them together and probably the first time they had hiked together. Their paces obviously did not match and its really easy in a group hike situation for the faster hikers to set a pace that exhausts the weaker hikers. There was a meetup hiking leader with a fast pace whose nickname when he was not around was FU Jeff who was infamous for setting a fast pace, then waiting for the group until the slowest hiker caught up and then Jeff would take off leaving the slowest hiker no time to rest. This was repeated all the way up the mountain and in more than a few occasions the slowest hikers would stop and head down. About the only thing that would slow down FU Jeff was when he was trying to pick up a 20 year younger female hiker

In this case it worked out but if we had not intervened, I expect there would have been a lost hiker drill. If the other two had called in F&G they would have no clue that the hiker was on the wrong side of the mountain and if we were not around I think that hiker may not have made it to the lodge, he was poorly equipped and the woods on that trail are quite dense and the ski runs intersect it in multiple spots with the potential to get off the hiking trail. If the other two hikers didnt report it, it may have been a day or two before someone figured out he did not make it back. A similar fatality occurred not that much later with a DOC group where one member dropped back and the group kept going. DOC went through a lot of changes after that event.

In this case the group violated a big "rule" that groups should agree to always stop at every trail junction until every member has caught up. Rule two was that particularly with a new group member that everyone should have had a basic map showing start and finish. This will date myself that a typical 20 year old assumes that they will always have cell service and the concept that they would need an ap that runs with no cell service would never happen as they would always have cell service.

 

[sierra]

With the amount of inexperienced hikers out there, it's amazing how few rescues there actually are. Don't get me wrong, it's not hard to make a simple mistake. I made a few trail errors in my early stages of hiking, "hey this doesn't look familiar?"

 

[dug]

Was with my daughter recently, who has never been much of a hiker. I laughed at the amount of times she followed a water bar into the woods before I gave her a head's up. I explained why they are there, etc. and even admitted I followed one that went into several yards and got myself lost, too. It happens.

 

[ImYourHuckleberry]

I've only ever hiked in small groups or by myself. I've never hiked in a small group where each person didn't hike at their own pace at least some of the time, which naturally leads to spreading out on the trail. We always tend to stop at any major intersections or points of interest and regroup. I don't recall this ever leading to a potential problem. Do other people actually stick closely together the entire day as a rule?

 

[DayTrip]

Was with my daughter recently, who has never been much of a hiker. I laughed at the amount of times she followed a water bar into the woods before I gave her a head's up. I explained why they are there, etc. and even admitted I followed one that went into several yards and got myself lost, too. It happens.

On my first ever night hike I did that quite a bit because the drainage with all the sand and dirt looked more like the trail then the trail did....until it dead ended in a wall of bushes.

 

[NH2112]

I've only ever hiked in small groups or by myself. I've never hiked in a small group where each person didn't hike at their own pace at least some of the time, which naturally leads to spreading out on the trail. We always tend to stop at any major intersections or points of interest and regroup. I don't recall this ever leading to a potential problem. Do other people actually stick closely together the entire day as a rule?

I used to belong to a couple Meetup hiking groups that did, or tried to, but the hike leaders tended to have thru-hiker builds and paces and basically said “too bad. Keep up.” when those of us who didn’t go 2.5+mph complained. So we tended to split into 2 groups that saw each other for short times at rest stops, summits, and parking lots. I did enough fast hiking (as in 5-6mph or faster) in the army, I’m not hurrying for anyone when they’re going way faster than the 1.5-2mph pace stated in the group description. When I asked why they wanted to go so fast instead of enjoying the trail, taking pics of interesting things along the way, etc, they said “so we can be finished before dark.” (Most of my hikes with them were in winter.) I brought up the fact that the group rules required certain pieces of equipment, such as headlamps, so why was finishing before dark so important? That’s when I found that most people do NOT like hiking at night. I love it, and have often started hikes after dark. A couple hours of nighttime cross-country snowshoeing is a 2-3x weekly thing for me in winter. So I gravitated away from groups and toward just 1 or 2 hiking partners with similar mindsets. One’s wife didn’t share that mindset, though, and both of us got in trouble regularly. The time I talked him into hiking Chocorua on a well below 0F March day was probably the worst, she was afraid they’d find our bodies sometime in June and was probably HOPING that would be the case for me LOL

 

[Sam Haverinen]

I've only ever hiked in small groups or by myself. I've never hiked in a small group where each person didn't hike at their own pace at least some of the time, which naturally leads to spreading out on the trail. We always tend to stop at any major intersections or points of interest and regroup. I don't recall this ever leading to a potential problem. Do other people actually stick closely together the entire day as a rule?

While I tend to exclusively hike alone, (using a self assessment protocol reliant on experience, state of mind and ability to adjust to "no mistakes" best practices), I prefer to group up. Groups tend to have varying skill and ability levels, so it seems most logical to divide into smaller groups, but no one should ever be left alone, out of sight and/or earshot. Logistically it makes the most sense that the fastest hikers go in front but that backcountry experts go last, and that regular regrouping happens at intersections or tricky route finding periods. I would also suggest that limiting groups to 10 or fewer lessens impact on the nature and other parties.

 

[Sam Haverinen]

I used to belong to a couple Meetup hiking groups that did, or tried to, but the hike leaders tended to have thru-hiker builds and paces and basically said “too bad. Keep up.” when those of us who didn’t go 2.5+mph complained. So we tended to split into 2 groups that saw each other for short times at rest stops, summits, and parking lots. I did enough fast hiking (as in 5-6mph or faster) in the army, I’m not hurrying for anyone when they’re going way faster than the 1.5-2mph pace stated in the group description. When I asked why they wanted to go so fast instead of enjoying the trail, taking pics of interesting things along the way, etc, they said “so we can be finished before dark.” (Most of my hikes with them were in winter.) I brought up the fact that the group rules required certain pieces of equipment, such as headlamps, so why was finishing before dark so important? That’s when I found that most people do NOT like hiking at night. I love it, and have often started hikes after dark. A couple hours of nighttime cross-country snowshoeing is a 2-3x weekly thing for me in winter. So I gravitated away from groups and toward just 1 or 2 hiking partners with similar mindsets. One’s wife didn’t share that mindset, though, and both of us got in trouble regularly. The time I talked him into hiking Chocorua on a well below 0F March day was probably the worst, she was afraid they’d find our bodies sometime in June and was probably HOPING that would be the case for me LOL

I think you made the right choice to "get out". I reccomend only following leaders that understand supporting the weakest in the group is their obligation and take pride in that. If timing becomes a concern, pushing weaker hikers too hard is more likely to result in accidents that can significantly extend the duration of the outing. Good leadership will account for adjusting goals to reduce risk.

 

[skiguy]

I got turned off on any kind of meet up group hike a while back when the guy who was supposedly leading the hike was not there to lead when the hike was supposed to start. After waiting awhile the rest of the group decided to go. Ironically only about 5 minutes in to the hike the so proclaimed leader came by announcing himself from the rear and stumbling fast to pass everyone only to fall on his arse and totally sprain his ankle. We carried him back to his car. That was definitely the first and last meet up hike I showed up for.

 

[NH2112]

I think you made the right choice to "get out". I reccomend only following leaders that understand supporting the weakest in the group is their obligation and take pride in that. If timing becomes a concern, pushing weaker hikers too hard is more likely to result in accidents that can significantly extend the duration of the outing. Good leadership will account for adjusting goals to reduce risk.

Yes, I enjoyed hiking with the people in “my” group, perhaps because there were several single women around my age with whom I obviously had at least one interest in common. I even suggested that I and one of the others in the slow group would volunteer to be leaders so we could form 2 separate groups, but was told Meetup didn’t allow that. Whatever, maybe it’s true, but I’m done. So I hiked alone or with 2-3 partners at most and every hike was enjoyable.

 

[Grey J]

I got turned off on any kind of meet up group hike a while back when the guy who was supposedly leading the hike was not there to lead when the hike was supposed to start. After waiting awhile the rest of the group decided to go. Ironically only about 5 minutes in to the hike the so proclaimed leader came by announcing himself from the rear and stumbling fast to pass everyone only to fall on his arse and totally sprain his ankle. We carried him back to his car. That was definitely the first and last meet up hike I showed up for.

The hiking gods are fond of irony.

 

[Salty]

Was with my daughter recently, who has never been much of a hiker. I laughed at the amount of times she followed a water bar into the woods before I gave her a head's up. I explained why they are there, etc. and even admitted I followed one that went into several yards and got myself lost, too. It happens.

Guilty of that myself. Sooooooo guilty....