Hikers on Lafayette

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bill bowden

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Driving to work, I heard on WBZ that a pair of hikers from Andover had been lost (2 nights?) on LaFayette. Since Sunday I gave up on Clinton very near the summit due to poor visibility and heavy snowfall, I would expect the conditions on LaFayette to be worse even though it started the day clear and sunny.

Any one able to give more information?
 
I have been looking for more info about this too after hearing it. On the news last night, they said the search had been called off for the evening and was going to start back up this morning. I hope everything turns out all right.

- Ivy


Here's a news brief.
 
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Lost hikers

I'm at work here in Andover and a woman here is a friend of one of the hikers. The news this morning was that they hadn't been found yet. I wonder if they got off the ridge and headed towards the Pemi wilderness. With all the blowing snow there would be no tracks to follow. She didn't think they were prepared to spend a night in the woods, they were day hikers. It was mighty cold the last two nights, we'll keep them in our prayers.
 
UPDATE

My co-worker just got a call from a relative who was on the search party, they found and airlifted the hikers off the mountain this morning! No more details about where they were found or their condition is known at this time.................
 
The hikers have been rescued according to WMUR.

BTW, why do all the news reports on this have the dateline "Pinkham Notch" instead of "Franconia Notch"? Is Pinkham Notch the official source of information for Whites rescues, or did they move Lafayette?
 
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by-lines

the article by-line is usually indicates where the article was written. Pinkham Notch is the location of the Joe Dodge Lodge, Pinkham Notch Visitor Center, this is most likely where the Author was when the article was written.

Glad to hear all is well.

Jim
 
Thank God!

I am so happy they were found alive.

I'll pray for a speedy recovery from the hypothermia.

__________________

Damn, just read the update. It's a tragedy.
 
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All is not well Brenda Cox is reported to have died this morning.
A sad day indeed........
 
I just heard it too, very sad. Her husband was able to walk out but is in very serious condition at Littleton hospital , please pray for him and his family.
 
I hike all the time with my wife.

That's very sad about his wife as he will never be the same.

This is a prime example of why I always,always take my GPS with a plan in it. A map,altimeter,compass alone don't cut it.

This couple and the ones on Mt. Washington this past week could have made it down I believe with one. If they hustled.that is.

The gps doesn't give me the go ahead if the weather is going to be unstable but how many days is the weather stable up there? So we chose to go as did Ken, etc. You never know.

.
 
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I just heard it too, very sad. Her husband was able to walk out but is in very serious condition at Littleton hospital , please pray for him and his family.
 
We hope that more details will be available that might indicate why they were found near the summit and not on there way down the mountain. Does anybody know what trail they were on and where they started.

Have to more or less agree with "CaptCaper" on the GPS thing, but even if they only had a compass - Route 3/93 is less than 2 miles due West. Better to bushwack down the mountain to the highway than to spend too much time trying to find a trail in Winter whiteout conditions. Might be slow going, but better than staying on the exposed ridge.
 
Here is what I received from one of my friends in NH:

"A 43 yr. and 45 yr (I think) old husband and wife team from Andover, Mass., went up Lafayette on Sunday, then got trapped in whiteout sub zero conditions. Crawled into a snow cave. Tried to come down Monday, but were too weak or conditions wouldn't allow them, so spent a second night in a cave. Didn't have overnight gear, just dayhiking stuff. He survived with only mild hypothermia and frost bite damage, she didn't. Her body core was 43 degrees and frost in her airways. They had to helicopter them off. That is all I have for now. Hope it isn't somebody you know."

If the temperatures were not sub-zero on Sunday night, they very well could have been on Monday night. Compare with the other thread about the two women ice climbers who dug into a snowbank on the Alpine Garden and survived temperatures that remained well above zero on Sunday night.

The fourth fatality in the Whites this winter by my count, two from exposure, two from falls. A very tragic couple of months. Just because the calendar says spring does not mean we can let our guard down. Let us be careful out there.
 
I saw the report on the 6PM WMUR news. They presented essentially the same information as Dr. Dasypodidae. The only additional info from WMUR was that the Coxs attempted to hike out on Monday but were effectively pinned down by winds averaging 75mph. The SAR folks were also prevented from traveling much above treeline on Monday by those same 75 mph winds. During the report there was video footage of a car parked at the Skookumchuck trailhead but the commentator never mentioned whether this was their car or just a shot that the news director liked. There was also video footage from the summit of Lafayette shot by a member of the SAR team. A Fish and Game officer also reiterated that even on dayhikes hikers need to be prepared to spend the night out. This would imply the Coxs were not so prepared but the F&G officer never stated that directly.
 
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I just checked the Obs for their weather summaries for Sunday and Monday.

Sunday
Temperature range: 22F to -11F
Wind: Peak Gust NW 75, Avg 46 mph
5.9" of snow

Monday
Temperature range: -6F to -17F
Wind: Peak Gust W 80, Avg 61 mph
No Precip
 
Yikes, colder than I thought on top of Washington on Saturday night (i.e., early a.m. Sunday), but of course I was nice and toasty inside the Obsy. I should correct my last post to this thread to state that the women ice climbers survived their forced bivi in the snowbank on the Alpine Garden on Saturday night, not Sunday night.
 
rbhayes said:
We hope that more details will be available that might indicate why they were found near the summit and not on there way down the mountain. Does anybody know what trail they were on and where they started.

Have to more or less agree with "CaptCaper" on the GPS thing, but even if they only had a compass - Route 3/93 is less than 2 miles due West. Better to bushwack down the mountain to the highway than to spend too much time trying to find a trail in Winter whiteout conditions. Might be slow going, but better than staying on the exposed ridge.

As soon as the weather got threatening I would have turned around and when the white out occured I would'nt be looking for a trail I'd be on it. And never gotten off it.

Following the track back I would have pushed down to treeline. It would have been unpleasant but a couple of hours or less to get to the tree line would have been better than walking around not knowing where your heading and what ledges,cliffs,slides your going to encounter. If I didn't have the GPS I just might of bushwacked west. The wind was NE and later SE Sun. I believe.

I did Washington this summer with winds the same as Sun. Inbetween the gusts there are lulls. We booked out in them.

What about cell phones? Do they work up there? A gps position could have been issued to the rescue party and they would have known exactly where they wereand a determination made weather to go up after them.


I get upset when I see these people lost and going around in circles with precious time wasteing when this could be avoided. AT least in some of the instances.
 
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