Lots of interesting sub-themes on this thread since my last post here.
First, this whole incident really hit home for me, as I hiked up Lafayette to welcome the New Millennium, reaching the summit just after midnight. I passed Stinkyfeet and friends who were on their way down in deteriorating conditions (they hiked up and down from the parking lot that night). About half way up the cone from Greenleaf hut my only headlamp gave out, which took me a few minutes to replenish with new batteries (I now carry three headlamps at all times!). So, I arrived on the summit a few minutes after two others who had bivied not far from me near the hut. In the time that it took me to snap a couple of flash shots, my fingers went numb, I got disoriented in the whiteout, and began heading down, but towards North Lafayette, almost 60 degrees off route (just like the ultra-running couple on Easter weekend in 2004). Fortunately, I heard the two below screaming at me that I was off route, so I was able get re-oriented, directly into a head wind of 30-40 mph. My compass was inside my parka on a string around my neck, but I did not bother to check it, what with the numb fingers, and I thought that I knew the summit area inside out, having been there over a hundred times. The 300 degree magnetic orientation for descent from the summit is now imprinted on my brain forever.
Through PVSART, I have seen a few photos, from which I think that Brian's footwear was a big problem: reasonably heavy, but single boots (what I would describe as three-season boots, athough I know a lot of really talented hikers on this board wear them all winter), which became useless once they were wet and frozen (probably explains why he was wearing mitts on his feet in his sleeping bag when found). Just the opposite of Beck Wethers (sp?) on the 1996 Everest debacle, who noted later that if he had been wearing EverestOne boots on his hands, he might still doing surgery. So, I am hoping that Brain's frostbite is not severe.
The costs of this rescue will be huge, although most of the 65 search and rescuers are volunteers and the National Guard provides helicopters gratis for practice (surprised there were any available, given the Iraq and Afghan wars). However, NH Fish & Game is really hurting financially, as they have never been fully budgeted for search and rescue, and they are not generating the income that they once did from fishing and hunting licenses (see another thread on this board concering this issue, and the proposed idea of hiking fees in the Whites [not to be confused with parking fees, which go to the USFS]).
