Solo Hiker rescued off Madison

[burg]

wmur video

http://www.wmur.com/video/25943285/detail.html

 

[Craig]

You wouldn't have caught me doing that interview or handing over that video.

 

[brianW]

2 pages of "solo hiker rescued..." and I read how to keep a cell phone dry how to dry it. This is not the VFTT I am familiar with.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

2 pages of "solo hiker rescued..." and I read how to keep a cell phone dry how to dry it. This is not the VFTT I am familiar with.

Yup. Not much to say about some poor schmuck who fell into a brook and nearly froze to death yet managed to survive with the help of some of NH's finest.

It happens. Saw something similar on one of my first winter hikes. Beautiful, sunny January day, but very cold - maybe -15F. As we walked up an old, abandoned woods road, one of the people managed to trip and do a face plant into a narrow brook. He was wedged, face down, in water about 6" deep, and with his arms locked by his sides. He would have surely drowned, but a quick-witted fellow grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hauled him out. Turns out the rescuer was a fireman/EMT from MA. We spent the next hour getting the victim into dry clothes.

Ran out of daylight as a result of that mishap so didn't make the peak. But, we had a fine story to tell as a result.

 

[dug]

Yep, it happens. I once broke through the ice and fell face first. Both arms, my legs up to my thighs, and my face all hit water.

It was a cold walk out. I was with people and not really worried...

Glad he ended up OK.

 

[Mike P.]

Not too much to go on as far as figuring out what happened, late start according to the video. At 3:30 seemed to be up high, unsure if still going up or down.

Guessing only that he didn't have a light as there was no night time video & if I was going to video some of the other parts, including a close up at the hut, I would have taped some by headlamp. (Some of that Blair Witch Project look)


Glad it had a happy ending & if the SAR people just had to go up a couple of miles on VW, that's not too bad. He could have been waiting at the hut for help. (He probably would have been dry then)

 

[mirabela]

Close call.

Regardless of the particular blunders this guy did or didn't make, it's a sobering reminder. In light of Kevin Rooney's post in particular ... just can't be too careful out there.

I wish everybody here a safe winter.

 

[DougPaul]

Guessing only that he didn't have a light as there was no night time video & if I was going to video some of the other parts, including a close up at the hut, I would have taped some by headlamp.

I think most people put their video cameras away after the sun sets.


However, the video talks about difficulty seeing where he was going in the darkness and his walking off the trail. This suggests that he did not have a functioning light.

The video also talks about the compass on his GPS freezing up. Most likely this is referring to the display slowing down in the cold. One should still be able to get a heading from the GPS and follow it using a mechanical compass.

It appears that he was following Snyder Brook downhill ("walking down the drainage")--a decent strategy as long as one can avoid falling in... And if he had a decent map (the recent AMC maps show that area in great detail) he should have been able to tell how to get to the trail from the stream bed even without GPS or compass. (Valley Way is always on the left of the stream heading down.)

The news video clearly only uses selected parts of the interview--perhaps additional info needed to properly analyze the cause of the incident was edited out.

Doug

 

[DougPaul]

Regardless of the particular blunders this guy did or didn't make, it's a sobering reminder. In light of Kevin Rooney's post in particular ... just can't be too careful out there.

Sh*t happens any time of year, but winter can be particularly unforgiving. Fortunately this one ended well.

Doug

 

[Mike P.]

I think most people put their video cameras away after the sun sets.


However, the video talks about difficulty seeing where he was going in the darkness and his walking off the trail. This suggests that he did not have a functioning light.

Doug

Do most people take a video camera on a solo hike?

I agree with you & I'm sure the litle clip from the news took just enough for their needs but if I'm hauling anything more than my BB, I'm taking pictures (& video, did this in Europe, slowed the hike down while my wife had to document everything) of the surroundings not me. Would have thought they would have had a little bit of the surroundings.

 

[MichaelJ]

Do most people take a video camera on a solo hike?

Actually, they probably do. Most cell phones, iPhones, BlackBerries, Android phones, etc. all take video nowadays.

 

[B the Hiker]

I'm not exactly sure how we got to the subject of cameras, but in any event, it just so happens that at this very moment someone is selling a dry bag for an SLR, if anyone is interested.

http://groups.google.com/group/boston-hb-gear-sale/browse_thread/thread/524be3aceb14d5cd



Brian

 

[John Satterlee]

http://www.thewesterlysun.com/news/article_29d871d2-0028-11e0-bc0b-001cc4c002e0.html

 

[mirabela]

Wow. That's an interesting read, quite a bit more detailed than journalistic coverage of these sorts of things usually is. He's not the "usual patient," either.

 

[Maddy]

That was a great video. No doubt he did the right thing calling for help when he did. So much for the compass on the GPS. I have no idea that could happen.

Some of you will surely recall "L" who had left his group to come down after attempting on Pierce on a blustery, snowy winter day. He got lost and ended up in the river. He could not for the life of him get out of there and had a block of ice form on his foot. "H", another hiker from the same group, also started down on his own shortly after L. and lost the trail but fortunately found "L". "H" followed the river down and notified the AMC. SAR plucked L. from the river after having to saw through the block of ice. One of my friends knows L and got the whole story from him. A terrifying experience.

My good friend, who is a very experienced mountaineer, saved one of his friends on a trail in NH when he fell into a body of water and could not get himself out. It was quite a struggle but he saved his life. I don't recall exactly where it happened but it was a most unexpected event and a very rude awakening to both of them.

We seem to depend on technology so much but it certainly can fail us at the most critical times.
It always seems to go back to basics.

This is one tough hiker. He kept his wits about him and had enough clothes to stave off serious hypothermia. Very happy to hear he came out of this experience intact and ready to hike again.

 

[DougPaul]

So much for the compass on the GPS. I have no idea that could happen.

I don't know what this means either. More info than just "the handheld GPS unit he had been using froze" (IIRC, there is a comment about the compass on the GPS freezing in the now-unavailable WMUR video) might be helpful...

GPSes have no mechanical moving parts so they don't generally literally freeze. However the display can slow down when they get cold* (put your LCD watch in the freezer to see this effect) and the batteries can be unable to supply enough power when cold.

* LCD displays have optically active molecules suspended in a viscous fluid. Applying voltages to electrodes varies the alignment of these molecules and changes the amount of light that gets through. As the display gets cold, the viscosity of the liquid increases which slows the response of the active molecules. In really extreme cold, the liquid can freeze and break the glass housing of the LCD. LCDs come in different temp ratings, with lower limits ranging from -20C (-13F) to -55C (-67F). http://americas.kyocera.com/kicc/lcd/notes/tempconsider.htm http://www.pacificdisplay.com/lcd_temp_range.htm

To understand what he really means by the GPS freezing, we need to know the model, the battery type and degree of depletion, the mode he was using, the temperature, and what the GPS was actually indicating. Some GPSes have magnetic compasses, some rely on one's motion to generate a compass display. If he wasn't moving fast enough, a motion-based compass vector would be inaccurate.

Several of the reports say that he should "have a backup compass"--failure to carry a mechanical compass is, IMO, an error in judgment and indicates a lack of knowledge of the limitations and possible failure modes of his GPS.

Doug

 

[DougPaul]

http://www.thewesterlysun.com/news/article_29d871d2-0028-11e0-bc0b-001cc4c002e0.html

He started to descend, but the handheld GPS unit he had been using froze - and he soon wandered off the Valley Way Trail.

He started down on Valley Way (a major highway down from the hut)--why was he unable to stay on the trail by visual means?

"I could tell I was really close to the trail, and I stumbled into the drainage of a creek," Ainsworth recalls. "I knew that the creek parallels that trail very closely, like within 100 feet in some spots. I knew that if I followed the creek I could just look for a spot to walk up on the trail."

But he soon found himself caught between two cliffs, and what had been a frozen creek under foot suddenly gave way.

This likely also means that the creek bed became narrow which generally means that the water flows faster and deeper resulting in thinner ice and greater risk if one falls in. Such narrow spots should be considered major danger signals.

Doug

 

[Oldmanwinter]

I must be missing something here. It seems to me that this hiker made a whole lot of mistakes. He left too late in the day and didn't turn around when that was obvious. He wasn't carrying a compass (maybe not even a map). His knowledge of GPS use is questionable. Sounds like he wasn't carrying a headlamp or other light. Who doesn't carry a knife, multitool or both in winter conditions? The most important piece of equipment he was carrying was the cell phone, he would not have gotten out wihout it. Please don't get me wrong, I have no problem with solo winter hiking. He did the right thing and it turned out well thanks to the rescue personnel. I certainly would have made the same call in that situation. Maybe it was just over-confidence due to his experience. Why is everyone so easy on this guy?

 

[DougPaul]

Hard to say...

I must be missing something here. It seems to me that this hiker made a whole lot of mistakes. He left too late in the day and didn't turn around when that was obvious.

Leaving late in the day is only a problem if he was concerned that he might be unable to navigate down Valley Way in the dark or was afraid of the dark.

He wasn't carrying a compass (maybe not even a map). His knowledge of GPS use is questionable.

He knew where the trail was in relation to the stream, so he likely had a map and knew the terrain. As for the GPS, I'll bet that most GPS-using hikers don't fully understand its limitations. (Not a legitimate excuse, but most likely true.) It does appear that he did not have a compass or at least didn't pull one out when the GPS started failing.

Sounds like he wasn't carrying a headlamp or other light.

I have seen no indication that he was carrying a light.

Who doesn't carry a knife, multitool or both in winter conditions?

Iced up clothing might be hard to cut off (never tried it) and he may not have had anything to change into. Or he may not have had a knife. There is some missing info here...

The most important piece of equipment he was carrying was the cell phone, he would not have gotten out wihout it. Please don't get me wrong, I have no problem with solo winter hiking. He did the right thing and it turned out well thanks to the rescue personnel. I certainly would have made the same call in that situation.

He was clearly lucky that the phone worked. (Both in the sense that he got a signal and that the phone worked in the cold. However, I'd expect most hiking GPSes to be at least as cold-tolerant as a phone.) Agreed--using the cell phone was a good move.

Maybe it was just over-confidence due to his experience.

I don't see anything unique here. Pushing one's limits is part of mountaineering and part of learning. Most of us do it at one time or another. And most of us know that we can handle some accidents and not some others. He was able to navigate to the summit of Madison and back to the top of Valley Way in the fog, which suggests some skill. But then he was unable to stay on a trail that is a highway and didn't turn back uphill when following the stream became dangerous. Being solo, of course, increases the risks and reduces the number of situations that one can handle.

[soap box]
This may be the kind of situation in which a schooled mountaineer has an advantage over a self-taught mountaineer. I learned about many dangers and how to avoid or deal with them in Winter School--all without having had to experience them myself. Ultimately either method can get one to the same place, but IMO the schooled mountaineer is likely to get there sooner.
(Disclosure: I went to winter school.)
[/soap box]

Why is everyone so easy on this guy?

I think we need more info before we (legitimately) are able to judge him.

Weight also carries a penalty and none of the safety gear is weightless (except for mental competence...). These days, the media often screams at us to save weight--often by leaving extra (ie safety) gear behind or using lighter-weight but less functional gear.

IMO, there are just still too many unanswered questions to make a defensible judgment.

Doug

 

[erugs]

Guess I'd better sharpen my knife. I doubt that it could cut through frozen hi-tec pants. But it did cut through a plastic tie-lock thingie so I could help repair a pack with a missing shoulder buckle a few weeks back. (If you buy the tie-locks, make sure you get the stronger outdoor grade, especially for winter.)