2 Hikers Rescued on GREEN MOUNTAIN.

I thought this was a joke, until I read it in the newspaper.

Headline: Boulder hiking duo lose trail, rescued after call for help

"Two Boulder hikers were rescued Friday after they wandered off a trail in the Green Mountain area in unincorporated Boulder County."

WOW.
For those of you who don't know-you can see roads from just about anywhere on Green Mountain.

Source/Link:
denverpost.com/search/ci_13…

I am a bit worried about the direction we are headed. Especially with a rescue on Green Mountain.

"Boulder residents Patrick Shortall and Joseph Polakovic became disoriented in the snow and could not find the trail."

I suppose backtracking their own footprints in the snow was also out of the question.

getting lost can happen to anyone; it's better just to call it in than make a situation worse by guessing or pushing a position down into technical terrain.

yes, everyone involved feels like an idiot, but getting lost happens

learning from mistakes is a part of being human. no judgments should be made. but lessons to be learned.

having this turn out with nobody getting hurt is the best result.

While normally I have a very relaxed and forgiving attitude, not this time. A judgement will indeed be made: these people were idiots and should have made the minimal effort to walk out themselves.

Getting lost in the snow is a serious matter and should not be understated. I'm glad everyone was ok. Bright orange call boxes should be installed at regular intervals along this trail and other areas that are easily accessible to protect ourselves.

obviously you could be in bad shape spending a cold night in the snow, even a few minutes from town. glad they are ok...

but c'mon! it almost seems impossible to get lost on Green Mountain. Even if you follow any of the streams down, even on the backside, they lead back to a trail and civilization. maybe they should have trailed bread crumbs or a really long piece of fishing line like cave divers.

it could happen to any of us I guess...but didn't.

I'm some where between 400-500 times up Green Mt. It is my local stair stepper. My last time was Friday this last week in the evening, The peak offers some beautiful views of Boulder when it is dark out. I post holed, up to my chest at times, to the summit. Wallowing through the snow for a mile or so tends to get silly but it is good exercise.

From the Greenman/Ranger intersection the trail was windblown with snow 1-3+ feet deep. Most of the year it is an easy to follow trail. In the fall/winter it tends to be snow covered and at times, hard to follow. It is my favorite peak by far but I can see how people could get lost in its present conditions.

People talk way to much shit online. Fortunately the crap talking stays behind the keyboard, I like having the back country to myself in the winter, Stay safe out there in these less tourist friendly months.

I was wondering if anyone knew any details about this. My initial post was one that sought the thoughts of those who frequent this website. I am not trying to criticize but wondering if the hikers used the resources they had, what equipment did they have... Did they have a map? or did they realize that a lot of cellphones have GPS capabilities on them and it takes very little to activate such. The point is, is that people often fail to utilize their resources... instead they panic and call for help. This post was in part a reaction to this article:

denverpost.com/search/ci_13…

Guess I should have added it to the initial post.
I have been lost in alpine conditions... it wasn't until I sat down and really dealt with the situation, that I really learned something. It appears that people are gaining a very heavy, reliability for technology. This is not to say that it hasn't saved lives. But honestly why aren't people more self-reliant these days? There is a shift in thinking/practice from self-rescue to something else...

There was just an article in my local newspaper about people becoming too reliant on the emergency personal locator beacons. They were given the fitting name of "yuppie 911". A couple of years ago there was a guy who used one 2 or 3 weekends running in the same general area of the Adirondack Park. The first time he was out canoeing and got caught in a snow storm with out proper equipment, the next weekend he was back out trying to get everything that got left when he was rescued the first time.

I had an argument with my aunt over this very topic in August. I certainly agree that these are life saving devices and can't argue that.

Unfortunately, I think this kind of technology, as well as cell coverage in increasingly remote areas, has brought a very different mentality into the backcountry.

We can all remember What happened to Aron Ralston getting caught in the slot canyon. If he had had one of these, things may have been different. He didn't and he had a fair amount of experience and got himself out.

People are jumping into situations they aren't prepared for. I've seen some sketchy stuff out climbing (as I'm sure we all have), and I know that at one point I was clueless. I found it important to slowly build my experiences and know when I would be in over my head.

Can we cross our fingers and hope for more self reliance? Is it our job as more experienced people to warn nubes about the dangers and instruct them to ease into things, with a strong emphasis on self reliance? YES!

I had a WFR instructor who worked for Search and Rescue. He told me a story of a call he received years ago that went like this.

My Instructor: Hello, this is county search and rescue. What's your emergency?

Unknown Caller: I'm calling from my cell phone. I went hiking and now I'm lost. Can you come find me?

MI: OK, do you know approximately where you are?

UC: No. I'm lost.

MI: Do you know what trailhead you started from?

UC: No. I told you, I'm lost.

MI: Do you know what road you were on when you started hiking?

UC: No. I'm lost, I don't know where I am.

MI: Do you know what county you are in?

UC: No. How many times do I have to tell you, I'm lost.

MI: OK. Call us back when you know where you are. [Hangs up]

It's easy to scoff at such events until you've been there.

I'm a climber, backpacker, mellow alpinist of 20 yrs. Been up the Diamond, Notch Couloir, Spearhead, Hallets, Ypsilon, Mt. Evans, the Bugaboos, etc. etc. I once got caught out alone at the top of Thatchtop Powell snow route in Sky Pond cirque in May in a total freeze-your-eyes-shut-behind-sunglasses storm of gropple and hail. The visibility was 20-30 ft. a lot of the time. The wind knocked me over sideways six or seven times. I had to follow my tracks back through the gathering snow and descend the way I came up. Outright terror taught me a lot that day.

One time in winter I lost the trail coming down Green Mtn. It was late Nov. and I misjudged the daylight and had no head lamp. Two thirds of the way down the trail dusk began setting in. I had some low level panic and started hiking faster wondering: How could I be in a jam so close to town? But I was.

Soon I tried some short cutting to get to the main drainage in Gregory Canyon. That terrain is utter crap when snow filled and with fading light. Deadfall trees, huge leg breaking drops of massive boulders, runnels of frozen meltwater, they all combine to make very unpleasant, steep and dangerous bushwacking. I did make it back but slipped sideways on a snow covered log and pulled a muscle. My body has never been quite the same.

If I'd had a cell or some other tech aid that evening I might well have swallowed my pride and used it. I'm glad those two got out without incident.

If they got benighted, then that makes it pretty cold in snow areas. And yes, three feet of fresh snow hides a lot of rocks and dead fall, making bushwhacking unpleasant. But we had a near full moon that night and they could have backtracked in their own footprints, no matter how far they had hiked. Just saying. Of course, it might have involved going back up, which no one wants to do.

I got lost for five hours in cedar groves once at night in Texas. When you are in the trees, it all looks the same.

Greg D wrote:Bright orange call boxes should be installed at regular intervals along this trail and other areas that are easily accessible to protect ourselves.

I can see Anthony's point. I used to do multi-day backpacking traverses in Northern Colorado. I wouldn't take a map to increase the adventure and try to get lost. Sometimes, I would get a little lost-not a good feeling. Of course, being lost involuntarily could be terrifying.

However, it is really hard to get lost in the Colorado Front Range. I also used to night hike without a flashlight (also to increase the adventure). In the winter I remember hiking in deep snow and hiking back in the dark by sensing and feeling my tracks.

It sounds like more details on the specifics of this incident are required to pass final judgment. However, without that detail, based on what we have been told, I would be inclined to say that this should not have been called in.

Sorry for the length of this post (below), but I'm enclosing two recent nuisance usages of beacons, and one valid. People that misuse beacons are endangering the rescuers and other legitimate users.

They are diverting physical and financial resources, and they are damaging the credibility of beacons (e.g. 'boy who cried wolf'). Suppose you'd just broken your back and your rescue was delayed because some douchebags had simultaneously called in a rescue because they were thirsty?

Recently, there have been two incidents of outright misuse of locator beacons.

1:

Rangers Respond To Unfounded Emergency Locator Call

By Ken Phillips, Chief, Emergency Services
September 14, 2009

At 1:30 a.m. on the morning of September 2nd, the GEOS Emergency Response Center in Houston notified dispatch of a SPOT personal satellite tracker 911 activation that had been received from the park. The location coordinates placed the device along the Tanner Trail, approximately three miles from the trailhead. An investigation revealed that the registered owner was associated with a backcountry permit holder who had extensive hiking experience in the park. A trail response was begun at first light, just prior to the launch of the NPS helicopter with additional personnel. A ranger arrived on scene to find three people asleep in their tents and in no need of assistance. One of the hikers, who was on her first hike into Grand Canyon, claimed to have become alarmed during the night when her group ran out of water and she subsequently heard “odd” respiratory noises emanating from the leader of the group as he slept. At this point, the hiker decided that the group was in trouble, activated her SPOT messenger device, then promptly went back to sleep without making any contact with her hiking companions. The group ultimately abandoned further plans for their hike and returned to the rim. The Tanner Trail is exposed, with little shade and no water for the entire nine miles of the hike to the Colorado River. Following subsequent interviews with the involved hikers, the park decided not to take further action.

2:

Grand Canyon National Park (AZ)
Hikers Evacuated After Three SPOT Activations In Three Days

On the evening of September 23rd, rangers began a search for hikers who repeatedly activated their rented SPOT satellite tracking device. The GEOS Emergency Response Center in Houston reported that someone in the group of four hikers – two men and their two teenaged sons – had pressed the “help” button on their SPOT unit. The coordinates for the signal placed the group in a remote section of the park, most likely on the challenging Royal Arch loop. Due to darkness and the remoteness of the location, rangers were unable to reach them via helicopter until the following morning. When found, they’d moved about a mile and a half to a water source. They declined rescue, as they’d activated the device due to their lack of water. Later that same evening, the same SPOT device was again activated, this time using the “911” button. Coordinates placed them less than a quarter mile from the spot where searchers had found them that morning. Once again, nightfall prevented a response by park helicopter, so an Arizona DPS helicopter whose crew utilized night vision goggles was brought in. They found that the members of the group were concerned about possible dehydration because the water they’d found tasted salty, but no actual emergency existed. The helicopter crew declined their request for a night evacuation, but provided them with water before departing. On the following morning, another SPOT “help” activation came in from the group. This time they were flown out by park helicopter. All four refused medical assessment or treatment. The group’s leader had reportedly hiked once at the Grand Canyon; the other adult had no Grand Canyon and very little backpacking experience. When asked what they would have done without the SPOT device, the leader stated, “We would have never attempted this hike.” The group leader was issued a citation for creating a hazardous condition (36 CFR 2.34(a)(4)). [Submitted by Brandon Torres, Canyon District Shift Supervisor]

At the same time, there are many legitimate, life saving uses of these devices. Here's one (there are of course many - although this report from the NPS doesn't say it, I know that in this incident a beacon was used):

Buffalo National River (AR)
Hiker Injured In Fall

On the afternoon of October 17th, park dispatch was notified that a man had fallen off a waterfall and was seriously injured on a primitive trail in the rugged Indian Creek area of Buffalo National River. Rangers Ken Nelson and Melissa Lamm hiked about a mile and a half on a primitive trail to the scene and contacted a 37-year-old male, Ricky Remmington, who was being treated by local first responders and an advanced life support team. Remington sustained injuries to his right ribs and right knee after falling and slipping down a waterfall a distance of approximately 15 feet, but was able to arrest himself prior to falling off a 60-foot cliff face to the creek bottom below. Members of the Buffalo Search and Rescue Team responded to the scene and a technical rescue was performed into the night hours, lowering the victim down the 60-foot cliff face to the creek bottom. A subsequent litter carryout was conducted over rugged terrain along the primitive trail to the trailhead, where he was then transported by air evac to a local hospital. Twenty-one volunteers assisted park staff in the rescue and carryout. This immense show of support from the following agencies and volunteer fire departments contributed to a safe rescue effort – Krooked Kreek VFD, Mount Sherman VFD, Compton VFD, Hilltop VFD, and North Ark Regional Medical Center. District Ranger Kevin Moses served as operations chief. Ranger Karl Sommerhauser was the incident commander. [Submitted by Robert Maguire, Chief Ranger]

what we should probably do is restrict all access to mountain terrain.

anyone found out there without a printout from the general approval consensus of the expert ad-hoc sar panel of mp.com should be immediately arrested and detained.

anyone with the approval of the ad-hoc mp.com sar panel should have already known better and upon receipt of aid, should it be needed or not and whether injured or not, shall be tarred and feathered and marched up and down pearl street as a lesson to anyone that had an article or media report written up about any mis-adventure they may have had.

the important thing here is to not help out your fellow man but dramatize all media reports. again, stay inside and stay tuned to your tv, unless you have permission of the mp.com ad-hoc panel; it's not safe outside.

I'm already scared enough as it is

(to the honorable ad-hoc members; this is what is known as sarcasm)

Stich wrote:"Boulder residents Patrick Shortall and Joseph Polakovic became disoriented in the snow and could not find the trail." I suppose backtracking their own footprints in the snow was also out of the question.

When I was 17 years old I go lost while hiking alone in Utah ( my partner, and I used to split up to cover more ground when looking for stuff); I was only lost for about 5 hours on foot, but it felt like much longer! The sun was setting, and I became panicky as it was freezing that time of year at night, and I was wearing inadequate clothing, and sneakers that were soaking wet from walking through the wet grasses that were lightly dusted with snow. I didn't have any water left, and very little snack items for food, and I didn't have a cell phone, or any type of light on me. After I stopped panicking (I convinced myself that I didn't really want to spend the night out there, as I had scoped out some poor possibilities for shelters, and I was damn hungry, and thirsty), I was able to finally notice, and follow some of my intermittent faint foot steps, and a couple of hours later I stumbled on a piece of wood (it was the most beautiful piece of rotted up wood I had ever seen!) I had passed earlier in the day. In the last remaining minutes of daylight I had found the "right" dirt road to get me back to the truck. I was fortunate that my partner stayed put, and had waited for me by his truck. He told me he was shooting his gun in the air so I could find him, but I guess I was too far away at the time to hear it; he had soon figured I was lost, and planned to wait until it got dark to turn his headlights on so I could see where he was in the dark. Getting lost, unprepared, in inclement weather can be a pretty scary adventure especially when panic sets in. I was a bit more careful after that experience. I probably would have been even more terrified during my experience if there was more snow involved, and/or I was injured.

Several of us at the annual mtg of the coven this past Saturday voted the Dirty Gri as the best person to get lost with (though, yes John can come too -- some of those pics you guys have are just a friggin blast!!)

Buff Johnson wrote:Several of us at the annual mtg of the coven this past Saturday voted the Dirty Gri as the best person to get lost with )