What's your opinion of "Hiker Dies/Gets Lost" threads ?

It's a tragedy when someone dies and unfortunate when they get lost hiking or climbing. What is your opinion of the links that get posted here ?

If the posts are respectful and discussing ways in which to avoid the situation, then I think the thread is educational.

If the thread starts down the road of "what an idiot.." or "what were they thinking...", then I roll my eyes and don't visit the thread anymore.

I will check them out from time to time. I also read the reports in Appalchin.
I might learn something. I do try to find what went wrong. Not that I want to pass judgement...the scenerio has already done that. But it may help me to keep and stay prepared. My biggest problem may be a sense that "it could never happen to me" and not take precautions.

If I dodn't want to read the post I simply skip it.

TrishandAlex said:

If the posts are respectful and discussing ways in which to avoid the situation, then I think the thread is educational.

If the thread starts down the road of "what an idiot.." or "what were they thinking...", then I roll my eyes and don't visit the thread anymore.

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My sentiments, exactly!

I should note that I interpreted "local" to mean New England and New York (ie, the Northeast), I hope that was your intent.

If I can learn something from it then it's good.

If it keeps one idiot from getting killed that's better.

Learning

I'm most likely to hear about this type of thing from people posting the links on this site. I think that they're all worthwhile because I learn from them, even after years of backpacking/hiking, etc.

Even if what I learn is about human nature, and not about hiking, per se, I consider the information useful. If I learn something that will keep me safer in the future, all the better.

I think that all the posts about those events can serve a purpose.

I vote 1.5. I will still read the 'far away' ones, but the local ones where I have actually hiked, (e.g. Kaaterskill falls), are certainly more interesting to me.

MichaelJ said:

I should note that I interpreted "local" to mean New England and New York (ie, the Northeast), I hope that was your intent.

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Yes. By Darren's definition VFTT is "a Northeast hiking and climbing community". Not that we aren't allowed to discuss other areas. Personally I don't normally see the point/relevance to many of these posted links.

Chip said:

I don't normally see the point/relevance to many of these posted links.

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Do we post for our own entertainment or to communicate and share with others?

I think the point of the forum extends further then what an one individual wants from it or thinks what it should be and it is as varied as all of are unique.

Tom Rankin said:

I vote 1.5. I will still read the 'far away' ones, but the local ones where I have actually hiked, (e.g. Kaaterskill falls), are certainly more interesting to me.

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Chip said:

Yes. By Darren's definition VFTT is "a Northeast hiking and climbing community". Not that we aren't allowed to discuss other areas. Personally I don't normally see the point/relevance to many of these posted links.

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I fall in here somewhere. The thing I don't like is a thread title or an OP that doesn't give me information on the where or relevance so then I have to start sifting through some news article that may also be lacking. Not that any news source puts out partial and misinformed information, ever.

I like to read them in the hopes I can learn one more thing I should look for/expect in trying to be safe during my trips.

I expect that type of info would not be subject to regional limitations (well, some times it may but not always).

And whats not local can end up being someplace one of us ends up on a trip-. ..

The posts can get the word out to others who've been hiking in the same area that day. They may have valuable info to aid in the search.

Never too old or too experienced to learn from someone else's misfortune.

I like them. They make me feel better about myself.

• If it's local

• If It doesn't end up looking like the comments posted to a Union Leader article

• If it's ongoing so hikers in the area should be alert for...

These are all things that I would like to see. But it's hard to draw a line, as with the Hunter Shooting Hiker thread from the west that really reminded me that hikers need to careful (wearing orange) in hunting areas.

Initially I read these with great interest, but soon strong opinions enter and it ends like a trainwreck.

"someone else's misfortune". My feeling is that, often, all we accomplish is to wallow in someone else's misfortune. Worse, that the links may be posted to do only that. Like the bully on The Simpsons..."Ha Ha !"

Edit: But from the looks of the Poll so far, most here feel the links are relevant, so maybe it's just me.

do i read them? not usually.

do i think things are learned from them? not really.

but the question in the poll asks if it's relevant.

is it relevant to hiking? sure.

so if i was going to vote, i'd guess i'd have to say they are relevant to hiking, but the poll doesn't account for any of the other thoughts, like what you just said, chip.

Chip said:

"someone else's misfortune". My feeling is that, often, all we accomplish is to wallow in someone else's misfortune. Worse, that the links may be posted to do only that. Like the bully on The Simpsons..."Ha Ha !"

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You mean Nelson?

Chip said:

Edit: But from the looks of the Poll so far, most here feel the links are relevant, so maybe it's just me.

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As long as the tone remains one of respectful education, I think the accident reports can prove useful. (IIRC there have been several instances in the last year or two where an accident report post has prompted several pages of replies/discussions/opinions which, for the most part, were well-measured and polite and made some interesting and useful points. I know I learned some new things.)

Whilst Views is a NE hiking/climbing community, I don't think it's necessarily bad to post incident/accident reports from other areas, as long as there's at least SOME relevance to our group. Some of us, as you well know , have dreamz of climbing some bigger peaks out west and this kind of thing can prove illustrative.

J.Dub said:

You mean Nelson?

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Yeah ! That Dude's definately pointing at someone that just got lost in the Great Gulf !