Re: [Philmont]: Catapiller - small group

Excellent point. The need to wait before getting back in line is a
critical and oft overlooked point in caterpillaring. This is especially
critical when a Crew is either only occasionally caterpillaring, or is
caterpillaring with a large number of steps. If everyone doesn't wait,
the first members of the caterpillar are getting much longer breaks than
the last members. This is because the Crew members usually step back in
line immediately after the end of the line passes them. So if the Crew
is stretched out (normally), the hiker in the front gets a 45 second
break (or more), while the guy in the back gets a 10 - 15 second break.
  If your weaker hikers are in the rear (as seems so often the case),
the caterpillar is counterproductive, because your strong hikers are
getting great breaks, and your weak hikers are barely getting a break at
all. Whenever I chat with Crews that "hate" the caterpillar (as I did
with a Crew from Dallas about 10 days ago in Yosemite), this is almost
always what is happening. The proper protocol if you are running, e.g.,
a seven step caterpillar is for each hiker to wait until the line has
passed him by seven steps before he/she gets back in line. In this way,
all hikers get an equal break. It goes without saying that this
requires hiking discipline by the entire Crew - our standard line to
guys who are jumping in early is: "Don't Cheat the Cat".

- Dr. Bob

Scott Sibley wrote:
>
> It doesn't matter if you take more steps. You are going to get a break
> that is equal to the time it takes your crew to pass a point. So you are
> right, a smaller crew will equal shorter breaks.
>
> We had several times when some of the slower crew members were getting
> even slower. At these times I asked the leader to add a minute or so to
> the break. He did this by waiting a minute after the last crew member
> passed him. So everyone gets a longer break, everyone gets the same
> break, and everyone still has the idea that this is a
> stand-up-packs-on-short-breather break.
>
> As the trek went on, the scouts caught on to this and didn't need
> coaching on when to add to the breaks.
>
> Thanks,
> Scott Sibley
> 1975 623-A-1
> 2004 621-D-5 Trek 4
>

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Received on Tue Aug 10 22:34:37 2004