Mt. Monadnock Rescue

[erugs]

This is a poorly written story from a CT newspaper, but another example of people who go hiking unprepared (if not one I should submit to a friend who teaches newswriting to college students as an example). I had heard a snip-it about this on the radio in which they called the teens "hikers" who had to be rescued. Perhaps I'm being grumpy today, but I wish the media wouldn't refer to these people as "hikers" any more than I should be considered a football player just because I was on a football field holding a football.

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/...ed-from-New-Hampshire-Mountain-136554613.html

 

[SAR-EMT40]

This is a poorly written story from a CT newspaper, but another example of people who go hiking unprepared (if not one I should submit to a friend who teaches newswriting to college students as an example). I had heard a snip-it about this on the radio in which they called the teens "hikers" who had to be rescued. Perhaps I'm being grumpy today, but I wish the media wouldn't refer to these people as "hikers" any more than I should be considered a football player just because I was on a football field holding a football.

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/...ed-from-New-Hampshire-Mountain-136554613.html

My wife told me about it yesterday. What can you say? Monadnock? Seriously? Are you freaking kidding?

Their "experience was a good test"? Of what? Boy are they going to be in for a surprise when they enter the Marines.

Your analogy is very apt.

Keith

 

[erugs]

My wife told me about it yesterday. What can you say? Monadnock? Seriously? Are you freaking kidding?

Your analogy is very apt.

Keith

That's so true...

 

[Dana]

“By the time we got to the peak, it was around 2:30 or 3:00. And by the time the sun was about to go down, the sun was starting to descend,” Burhnam said.

 

[Maddy]

Live and learn!

I think they did great. The stayed put, acknowledged defeat, called for help, and blew the whistle. I am impressed that they carried one. Kids are not always "conscious" of time. How many never make it home for their curfews?

This might toughen them up a bit for their upcoming experience in Marine boot camp. Godpeed!

 

[erugs]

“By the time we got to the peak, it was around 2:30 or 3:00. And by the time the sun was about to go down, the sun was starting to descend,” Burhnam said.

Classic, isn't it?

 

[--M.]

Yeah, but I heard nobody ever goes there anymore, it's too crowded.

 

[woodstrider]

perhaps I'm being grumpy today...

yeah, you are.

I have known very experienced "hikers" to be disoriented in similar conditions.

 

[SAR-EMT40]

yeah, you are.

I have known very experienced "hikers" to be disoriented in similar conditions.

Just curious. So did the very experienced hikers you know just hunker down and call the feds on their cellphones and wait for rescue? Or did they take out their headlamps, put on their wet weather gear and look at their compass and make it back to the trail-head?

Keith

 

[Nessmuk]

Just curious. So did the very experienced hikers you know just hunker down and call the feds on their cellphones and wait for rescue? Or did they take out their headlamps, put on their wet weather gear and look at their compass and make it back to the trail-head?

Excellent point. But given the apparent inexperience they did the right thing under the circumstances. They simply got lucky that what they had worked for them with little serious consequence other than hopefully a lesson learned.

I spent a few years as an Air Force navigator. I never forgot what my first instructor once told me when I was young and first learning the craft.... "all navigators will make mistakes - the difference between a new nav and an experienced nav is how soon the mistake is caught and corrected". I found that to be very memorable and true throughout my career, and I repeated it to my own students when I became an instructor. The same thing applies to navigation while hiking. Now I teach land nav to SAR and trek leader guides. I make that point very strongly to my students - you are allowed one navigation mistake, but you must catch and correct it early. Make another mistake to compound the confusion and it becomes exponentially more difficult to quickly recover.

 

[--M.]

yeah, you are.

I have known very experienced "hikers" to be disoriented in similar conditions.

Ehh, don't worry about it! They're in line for a little razzing; I was just givin' 'em the old Yogi Berra routine, and I've broken most of the rules in the book, so I'm not judging....

But..., don't you think they deserve just a little good-natured ribbing? I'd think they'd be grateful we don't put in the freedom-of-info-request for their 911 call and really let 'em have it!

It's all part of the learning process....

Now, what will the NH legislature learn from this process? The 'perpetrators' were from out-of-state! Cue Pee Wee Herman 'Tequila' dance!

"I say we let 'em go!"

 

[BobC]

I got caught in the dark on Monadnock on my first-ever hike in 1987. I actually refused an offer of a flashlight from a ranger on the summit, thinking I wouldn't need it. We got about half-way down before it got completely dark. As I stumbled down the trail, just feeling along with my feet, trying to calm my hysterically sobbing girlfriend, I distinctly remember thinking how little light there was at night, with no streetlights around. The rangers went and found us about a quarter-mile from the trailhead, after still seeing a car after dark in the parking lot. I was 24 years old and a complete moron. But I decided that I would never go out in the woods again without a light source, no matter how short I thought the hike would be. Hopefully these kids learned the same lesson I did.

 

[erugs]

The rangers went and found us about a quarter-mile from the trailhead, after still seeing a car after dark in the parking lot. I was 24 years old and a complete moron. But I decided that I would never go out in the woods again without a light source, no matter how short I thought the hike would be. Hopefully these kids learned the same lesson I did.

Which makes me wonder. The newspaper report said it was Fish and Game who came to their rescue, but I wonder if it wasn't state park staff? I didn't see anything about this rescue on the Fish and Game site. Not that it really matters, I suppose.

Funny thing: years and years ago I had a co-worker friend who got stuck in her car in a big snowstorm. After that she went out and bought snowshoes to keep in her car and never, ever used them.

 

[sierra]

Live and learn!

I think they did great. The stayed put, acknowledged defeat, called for help, and blew the whistle. I am impressed that they carried one. Kids are not always "conscious" of time. How many never make it home for their curfews?

This might toughen them up a bit for their upcoming experience in Marine boot camp. Godpeed!

Maddy your so nice, but in this world where every kid gets a trophy lets at least call it fairly, they where unprepared, got caught making bad choices and needed to be saved, thats not great at all. BUT that being said, we all including most definetly myself started as beginners and made our share of blunders, although I am proud to say Ive never had to be rescued.

 

[brianW]

"Dumb people repeat their mistakes, smart people learn from their mistakes and wise people learn from others mistakes." Hopefully these teens will learn from theirs. I know I learned a lot from mine.

 

[Maddy]

Maddy your so nice, but in this world where every kid gets a trophy lets at least call it fairly, they where unprepared, got caught making bad choices and needed to be saved, thats not great at all. BUT that being said, we all including most definetly myself started as beginners and made our share of blunders, although I am proud to say Ive never had to be rescued.

I never have either but in retrospect it was only because the mountain gods were kind to me. This is why I mentioned "live and learn". What truly amazes me is I am still learning. Forums like VFTT certainly contribute in a big way but years ago, I was on my own.Trial and error, and there were plenty of errors.
Now if these kids went out there and repeated the same mistakes, I would not be so kind.