The Phil-list Oct_2007: [Philmont] slow and fast hikers

From: Jim Thompson \(PhilSearch\) <Jim@PhilSearch.Org>
Date: Thu Oct 18 2007 - 10:30:14 CDT

I've been holding my fire on this one.

I agreed with all of Mark's point, except the split crew ... there are a
variety of reasons why, but in the end its often the Advisors that are out
paced by the crew. What follows is a true story, an excerpt from my '06
Trek summary .. we were hiking off Phillips headed for Comanche Peak Camp
late in the day ...

17:00 Heard distress signal – three whistle blasts
… pause … repeat … repeat …

- Located our sister crew off the trail, disoriented … they had lost
trail.

- Youth only, adults were no where to be found. Youth indicate that
they (the adults) had fallen behind.

- Embedded sister crew in our own and proceeded to Comanche Peak
Camp

17:30 Arrived Comanche Peak

- Lead Advisor from Sister was waiting on a rock.

- We had a discussion.

- He indicated that they (his crew) wouldn’t wait and that when he
arrived at camp he left them a note (pointing to a scrap of paper in the
trail sign)

- We had another discussion.

Next morning at Sawmill I reported the event to the CD "Funny thing he said"
...

- Our sister had arrived Sawmill the night before and asked for a
campsite ...

- Said they had an advisor suffering from Altitude Sickness

- He spoke with them about following their intinerary

- Sister's lead advisor seeks me out, thanks me for help, tells me that
they will be skipping next trail camp and heading for 'cito instead

- I have another chat with the CD

- We see our sister at Lower Sawmill per the plan.

This crew had been a challenge all along, they had three advisors .. one of
which really couldn't hike .. the other advisors spent all of their time
helping him across streams, and long the trail etc ... so much so that the
crew was never really "a crew", rather it was "lord of the flies" and "The
three advisors". You really have to follow the protcols, all of them,
independent of your level of experience or desires. When the Rangers & Cons
guys come looking for you in the middle of the night because of Flood or
Fire (both in '06) they get real irritated if you aren't where your supposed
to be ...

Clearly, this illustrates an extreme situation but also a health and safety
issue ... we were the last crew off the north side of Phillips that day ...
if we had not come along where would this crew have slept?

YIS

Jim

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Philmont@troop47.com [mailto:Philmont@troop47.com]On Behalf Of
bill55@comcast.net
  Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 10:33 AM
  To: Philmont List Member
  Subject: [Philmont] slow and fast hikers

No matter what method you use to achieve this end, the crew must
ABSOLUTELY stay together. Allowing separation can cause a serious safety
problem in the wrong circumstances, and not just of the "taking the wrong
trail" variety.

A group in front striding forth, confident that the others are only 10
minutes behind, can have their calculations seriously upset by any delay in
the rear group, whether to treat a blister, bathroom stop, broken shoelace
or broken ankle. What if it is then discovered that the first aid kit or the
trowel and TP is being carried by the first group?

A serious injury in the slower group is not just one problem, it is
several. There is dealing with the injury PLUS the problem of attempting to
overtake the faster crew ( a major problem, when you have, by definition,
only the slowest hikers at hand). Now you've split 3 ways, leaving a greatly
diminished crew to deal with the initial, serious problem. Even when you
catch them, more time is lost coming back to the scene of the problem,
particularly if they took off on a long downhill, and now must retrace their
steps.

If can be no fun at all trying to catch up with guys who think they have a
license to be out of touch and on their own. In the flat NJ Pinelands, I had
to RUN to catch up with guys who would only stop when I got into hailing
distance, but then would turn around and go again when I got closer, before
I was close enough to be heard, even at a shout, because they decided on
their own that being in sight of the next guy in line was good enough, even
if everyone else was God knows how far further behind. ( I guess they
thought STOP! meant stop only until I ceased yelling "stop!", then continue
on).

I'm no greyhound, and RUNNING for the better part of an hour to catch up
with some teenagers, when I expected a nice afternoon hike, was not my idea
of a good time.

On a canoe trip, when "in sight" means you can see a red dot that is
Johnnie's red shirt, at a distance where it would take a half hour to catch
up to Johnnie, presuming he stops paddling, and Johnnie WON'T stop paddling
and is out of earshot, it can be a real problem.

"It can't happen to us" is a hard assumption to break, especially in the
youth. But it truly can. If you're separated when it "happens", things are
much worse.

  Bill Sheehan, ASM
  Troop 55, Pitman, NJ
  Philmont '70,'72, Autumn Adventure '01,'03,'05 and '07

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Received on Thu Oct 18 10:40:24 2007

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