6 Tufts Students Rescued From Dry River

[RollingRock]

I think one main lesson they will learn from their experience is how fast other hikers will pounce upon their imperfections while not seeing the same in themselves.

We certainly appear a less than friendly group...we could all just gather and kick them while they're down.

Who would want to hike with us, they are learning while we apparently already know everything...just ask us.

... remember no smiling or wishing them well on future excursions of which I hope they have many...

I don't look at our analysis the same way as you do. I'm not looking for imperfections or to kick them when they are down.

I agree...hell yeah...they did a fine job...they didn't get themselves injured or killed. When they panicked, as it appears to me, they called for help. And they learned, like all of us, things to make their next outing have a better outcome. And kudos to them for putting a story out there for us to learn more about their thought process. It's from reading that story that leads us to offer some advice because they think they did everything right when there were better alternatives.

I look at these comments more like coaching, and pointing out certain decisions/alternatives that they should have considered. One would hope that if they read this thread, they would learn something. The phrasing and delivery of the message would certainly be in a kinder, friendlier fashion if this were face-to-face, but this is cyberspace after all, so its easy for our emotions to get the best of us.

I think everyone in the VFTT community is very friendly; at least the ones I've met on the trail. The VFTT community is great for providing advice for the asking! Think of these threads as an extension of that.

 

[RoySwkr]

I also don’t feel that this is a finable offense. If they are fined, then F&G is basically saying you must be infallible while hiking in the WMNF.

In a way this incident is a model of a new-age rescue: lost hikers call in on cell phone, one team is dispatched to known coords, hikers know help is coming so relax and rest up hence can walk out on their own. [Hmm - why were multiple teams needed on Lafayette?]

It would be nice if the Tufts Outdoor Program in a spirit of Thanksgiving decided to contribute a few hundred dollars to the rescue fund, and the state didn't bother to determine negligence.

 

[RoySwkr]

I think what is important is that it's clear to visitors what they are getting into. If some trails are well and obviously marked and maintained, and others lack marking and maintenance to the extent where it is easy to lose the trail, then that should be made clear on a nice, simple, big sign at the trailhead. That information should not be buried in ridiculous legalese filed in an office somewhere, that is obviously hard even to interpret. Put it where the people that need to know will see it.

Most hikers would consider it quite reasonable that in an area with a dense trail network such as the Northern Presidentials or Mount Chocorua, some trails would be well marked and cleared for heavy use and others leading to minor points of interest could be more rustic. Unfortunately such a policy violates the Forest Plan, which provides that trail construction and maintenance standards be based instead on the management area classification - roughly akin to requiring all roads in Iowa to be 6-lane divided highways and all roads in Minnesota be single-lane gravel regardless of the traffic on each. [The good news is that the people who write such rules rarely get out into the Forest to discover that they are sometimes ignored.]

An interesting concept would be at every junction to post the standard to which each segment was designated and also the last date it had been so maintained - oops, never happen! Aren't there any of the "$5000 fine for entering closed area" signs going down into Dry River, and why did the hikers go past them?

 

[Neil]

How many people hike with a compass around their necks and a map in a handy pocket? And look at them from time to time?

I've enjoyed this thread. It made me look up the trail on the map. On mine there appear to be three trails: Clinton, Webster Cliff and a 3rd which goes back to the Crawford Trail.

I found this to be a pretty lame example of spin-doctoring:

“That protocol was followed,” she explained. “From a planning and preparedness standpoint, these students did nothing wrong. So we’re kind of counting it as a success of all the planning that previous [TMC] boards have put into this kind of thing.”