RE: [Philmont]: Different Categories of "Deficient" Advisors

I echo the comments made by others in saying AMEN to Dr. Bob's recent email.

In 1996, I got the opportunity to serve as a crew leader on our trek. We
had 3 adults on our trek (#7), including our lead advisor, "George" (name
changed to protect the not-so-innocent). If my memory serves correctly, we
only held one Philmont-specific overnight shakedown hike. George was a big
guy, over 6' and 200+ lbs. Not fat, but definitely big.

When we got out there, his packed weighed in at 70 POUNDS before we boarded
the bus. He didn't seem to get the idea that less weight = a good thing. I
seriously think he was clueless and expecting this to be like a summer camp
as a lot of the weight was a huge camera and several dozen rolls of film,
plus numerous "luxury" items (I believe he even carried a folding camp
stool!). As you all can probably figure out, he had a miserable time on the
trail. And to make things worse, he took out his frustrations on everyone
else by frequently holding what he called "Bitch Sessions" where he would go
around and point out everything everyone was doing wrong (basically rip
everyone a new you-know-what). The jerk even made his own son cry at one
point.

On day three, our itinerary took us from Lamberts Mine to Mt. Phillips camp
with a stop for conservation at Thunder Ridge. We did the program at
Cyphers on day two, so that would not be a factor. But it still took us
forever to get up to Thunder Ridge. It was very late in the day by the time
we left there, and several people were getting dehydrated. Later, some rain
and wind moved in and it cooled off a lot. George had to keep resting, and
during one extended break, our strongest crew member started becoming
hypothermic due to standing still in the deteriorating conditions. It was a
very hairy situation and we ended up making it only as far as Comanche Peak
Camp, and it was still well after dark by the time we got there. Thanks to
this, I missed the one thing I had been looking forward to the most -
sunrise and sunset from the top of Phillips (we had missed going up Phillips
in '94 too).

Things didn't get better when we got back to base camp. Rather that
congratulating everyone, he sat us all down, told us how he had "wasted"
$2000 between him and his son and he demanded that we all write letters of
apology to Philmont (apparently, he thought we had done some sort of
disservice to the staff or something...I don't think I ever wrote one, at
least I sure as hell hope I didn't). I really think that we caused him a
miserable time, so he must have thought that we did the same to everyone
else, including the staff. And...back when we checked in on day one it
turned out that we owed extra money for two extra nights at base camp (one
before and one after the trek due to travel arrangements). This came out to
about $25/person and he originally said he would have the troop billed so we
could worry about it when we got home. After the trek, he changed his mind
and demanded that every Scout pay him on the spot. This left some with
little to no money for souvenirs or lunch on the bus trip back to Denver,
but he had no sympathy for anyone.

Anyway, thanks for letting me rant (I could go on for several pages - I
actually did in a letter I wrote, but unfortunately never sent due to going
away to college, to our troop's committee chairman that fall. I wish I
still had a copy of it). I think several of the Scouts kind of dropped out
after this trek, but Philmont (even with this awful experience) still meant
a lot to me, so it didn't phase me...much. This guy was a selfish jerk and
I agree 100% w/ Dr. Bob that people like him are depriving well-deserving
people of the opportunity to get to Philmont.

Brian Gannon
ASM, T-1113 - Fairfax, VA
Philmont Treks 1994, 1996, 2002, 2004, 2005?
Philmont Ranger 1997-2000

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Received on Sun Sep 26 22:43:28 2004