"Live" Rescue On Facebook: Hiker Lost On Lafayette

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DayTrip

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I was just cruising through all the Facebook hiking groups and came across several posts about someone lost on Lafayette. Apparently a hiker posted to Facebook requesting assistance and there is a SAR response in progress. Is this legit or just internet shenanigans? Seems to be real. Several of the admins appear active and of course tons of other bystanders are throwing in their two cents. Not sure if I have ever seen a rescue initiated via social media. Hopefully it all works out.
 
Yah I think I've joined and left that group 5 times now. In a group that size you can get fast, highly helpful information and equally rapid and utterly worthless, self absorbed drivel. Sometimes when I'm bored I like to dump gas on a topic just to see where it goes.... :p
 
:D When I was bored I would post that picture of Killington and call it Washington or ask the "shoes or spikes" question for obvious snowshoe conditions. I get a lot more work done these days.
 
Yah I think I've joined and left that group 5 times now. In a group that size you can get fast, highly helpful information and equally rapid and utterly worthless, self absorbed drivel. Sometimes when I'm bored I like to dump gas on a topic just to see where it goes.... :p

It sounds like you have an unhealthy relationship with that group. :rolleyes:

Re: your gas comment, it reminds me of this: https://xkcd.com/1166/ for some reason.

As for the topic at hand, I'm curious what the full details are. I have some friends that aren't self-starters that I would send this link to: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+get+off+franconia+ridge
 
It sounds like you have an unhealthy relationship with that group. :rolleyes:

Re: your gas comment, it reminds me of this: https://xkcd.com/1166/ for some reason.

As for the topic at hand, I'm curious what the full details are. I have some friends that aren't self-starters that I would send this link to: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+get+off+franconia+ridge

Maybe. It's a real good and real bad group at the same time. It is very enjoyable and thoroughly annoying. :)

As far as the situation, it sounds like an inexperienced hiker (name obviously is on Facebook) was in a white out somewhere "in the alpine" between the hut and Mt Lafayette summit, supposedly lost his map and compass in the high winds and hunkered down behind a cairn and Facebooked the 4k group for help. Many people in that group are obviously connected to resources in NH so they arranged for a rescue. It does not appear he was able to communicate to anyone since. Now of course everybody and their brother is making fun of him, condemning the people making fun of him, sending him prayers, "following" and starting various self-serving sub topics on the matter.

I personally have mixed feelings on the subject. My first reaction is that it annoys me his first thought when in a potentially life threatening situation is to get on Facebook. But on the other hand, he instantly tapped into a 16,000 person user base and got an almost instantaneous, free response to his predicament. Is our dependence/addiction to social media going to the next level now? Are we going to send distress signals to anonymous strangers with wildly varying skills and knowledge in such a situation? One person who commented on his thread told him to immediately get out of his wet base layers to avoid getting a chill. He's in a white out, in Winter, on Lafayette. Is getting naked really the best plan for this kid right now? And if he is so ill equipped to handle the situation and sees that advice is he going to take it? Seems like we are really going down the rabbit hole with this precedent.
 
My first reaction is that it annoys me his first thought when in a potentially life threatening situation is to get on Facebook. But on the other hand, he instantly tapped into a 16,000 person user base and got an almost instantaneous, free response to his predicament.

FWIW, here's his messages, all about 4 hours ago for those who haven't seen it (lots of messages in between so some of these are responses):

"Send help, stuck by a cairn on old bridle in alpine between hut and Lafayette summit. Wind took map and compass white out conditions"

"Please help"

"Texted 911 -not enough service for call thi goi [sic] through"

"Serious. No. Get cliffed out everytime I try"


It's possible he didn't know that texting 911 would connect him to emergency dispatchers. I thought this was common knowledge but I could be wrong.

I also thought that if you had enough cell service for data, you'd have enough for voice, but from what I've seen of a quick search, I am apparently wrong.

It's also interesting to see his confusion on the trail (OBP above the hut). Someone pointed out on FB, there are no cairns on the Greenleaf Trail, only the FRT. Cannon currently shows winds out of the north at 22 mph, so my guess is between getting cliffed out and a cairn is that he's south of the summit on the FRT.

I've lost compasses and maps before. I now carry 2 compasses and 3 maps (yes, I've lost 2 maps...) after learning the hard way, fortunately without incident.

I saw a report of F&G speeding up 93 earlier. Hoping for the safest outcome for all.
 
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"Someone pointed out on FB, there are no cairns on the Greenleaf Trail, only the FRT."

Ooff! That's is completely wrong, there are plenty of cairns on Greenleaf Trail above treeline leading up to the summit, but they are very tough pick out right now covered in rime, especially in low visibility.

I hope the young man is ok.

-Chris
 
One thread got shut down because a few people were calling it fake or saying well, he must be ok because he has time to post to Facebook.
 
One thread got shut down because a few people were calling it fake or saying well, he must be ok because he has time to post to Facebook.

That thread was actually closed because too many people were clogging it with nonsense and they were hoping to leave it open for Rob to try and post again according to one of the FB admins (although I have no idea how that works - can they leave a thread open for specific people?). They attempted a new thread and linked him in the comments but no new posts.
 
Ooff! That's is completely wrong, there are plenty of cairns on Greenleaf Trail above treeline leading up to the summit, but they are very tough pick out right now covered in rime, especially in low visibility.

I hope the young man is ok.

-Chris

Thanks Chris. I haven't been up there since the 80's. :rolleyes:
 
WMUR just reported that Fish & Game found the hiker and are hiking him out.
 
Not me. From Facebook:
Rescue update: I'm home, probably some mild frostbite but nothing serious. Thank you to all who took me seriously because it was serious. I'll give the whole story below but first I want to emphasize that 911 was my first call and it should be yours in that scenario too.

I started hiking up to Lafayette around 2am. For those who don't know this about me, I love sunrise hiking. I've seen over half of the 48 at sunrise or sunset at least once. I left my plans with some close friends. I had checked the forecast and it wasn't anything out of the ordinary for winter(ish) time on the franconia ridge. A few hundred feet below the summit I noticed deteriorating visibility and turned back. Anyone that decides against summiting due to condition changes knows how agonizing it is, and that we would do the same thing again and again to mitigate that risk. For the record, i've done franconia ridge 8 or 9 times and 5 in winter. I know the territory and I know the trails.
I cairn hoped a good ways back until I hit a dead end around 8am. I bushwacked around (maybe taking more aggressive routes than advisable, at one point I was down the treeline/shrub line on the bowlside of lafayette) to find the next portion of trail. I couldn't. Visibility was down to probably ten yards from 8am through when I was rescued. I spent a solid two hours trying to figure out which way to the shoulder for a return to the hut area for a safe return. Earlier in the bushwack I lost my map, compass, and bivy because I went for a snack and the bag containing the items landed on some hard crust for the wind to remove from the mountain (protip, don't keep those the items together in a bag).
So I returned to the cairn I found earlier. I tried to call 911 but it didn't go through. Maybe as the result of the thick cloud, maybe the result of the 50+ mph winds, or maybe my cell carrier sucks. Either way i couldn't get a call through so I texted the people I left my plans with and posted here because for unknown reasons I was able to. Hate me for posting that on here if you want to, but I would rather have random people on Facebook calling for a SAR just in case my friends didn't have access to their phones or whatever.
So the rescue is initiated around 10am. I dug myself a snow hole next to a rock, put the final touches on my parkas and hard shells, and lay on my bag. They couldn't get to me until 5pm died to the harshness and visibility conditions. I lay in that hole for 7 hours. 7 hours of trying to figure out if all my gear would hold out. Of figuring out what the last words I want to be to my family and friends. To record a list will and testament. To come to terms with the people I've bettered and worsened, the friendships and relationships i've had, to understand that this might be it. I accepted the likelihood of my death today.
I held out in that hole for 7 hours, being blasted by artic temps and 50 mph+ winds while it also buried me in fresh snow. SAR came as it was getting dark, they too faced difficulty navigating those conditions.
You can hate me for getting rescued or for posting here to help get one underway. The fact of the matter is if I had been unprepared or if I was lacking soft skills I would not have made it out

Cheers
 
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Please excuse my ignorance, but how does one get online access to Face Book if you cannot use the same smartphone to make a voice call. Can you? I would think that FB is much more data intensive than a voice phone call.
 
Please excuse my ignorance, but how does one get online access to Face Book if you cannot use the same smartphone to make a voice call. Can you? I would think that FB is much more data intensive than a voice phone call.

My understanding is it's a bandwidth issue. Voice calls require a certain speed to carry the frequencies of your voice, whereas data (or text) can, I presume, go through at any old pokey speed it pleases.
 
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