I remember feeling a bit unwell when we spent about a week in Idaho and Utah . BIL, who’d lived in Provo (altitude about 4500 feet) for some years, thought I might be having issues with altitude, and day trips DH and I have taken above 7000 did have some impact (lack of energy, feeling like there wasn’t enough air in the air). I’m a lifelong sea level resident.
She didn’t have the same altitude problems as you, but for someone living at sea level, even 10k feet can contribute to fatigue.
However, my WAG is the larger problem was her fitness level was significantly less than the rest of us.
Hiking up over 1,600 m with a backpack was too much for her, and by the time we divided up her load she had gotten too tired.
Tired people can make stupid decisions and I’m glad that there were others of us along to help.
A whistle is standard SAR equipment. As is a signal mirror. At least for a mountain environment.
The first rule of SAR is do not become a victim. Don’t make others search for you as well.
Now of course, with radios easier to get and more affordable, it’s not as much of a problem. Can’t really depend on cell phones depending on where you are.
My cousin, lives in Denver. Can no longer visit me up at altitude. That 6000 foot gain is too much for her. She has COPD.
The articles on the recent case said that the left-behind guy was wearing all black. I suspect that’s also a bad idea.
Yeah, one of our dogs is all black. Mix in shade and pine trees and I can’t see her unless she moves.
When my Wife walks the dogs, she wears an orange jacket, and a yellow backpack. Hopefully some idiot won’t mistake her for a deer.
There was a heartbreaking incident in, IIRC, Connecticut years ago. A woman was standing in her front yard, and a hunter shot and killed her. She was wearing white gloves, and that was the guy’s excuse. He said he mistook them for the deer’s tail. He was charged with something – I can’t remember what – and he was exonerated. It was country, and the woman’s family had moved there recently. Locals said it was her fault for not knowing country customs. It was a real WTF moment for me.
Adding to the chorus saying that altitude related problems at lower than 10K feet are common. A relative had a 3 year work assignment in Mexico City, which is at 7K feet. He said that his company and others had a policy of not scheduling meetings on the very day that people flew in from other cities, knowing that they would need at least half a day to acclimate to the altitude.
Maine, I think.
– Maine, more than once; though the second one pled to manslaughter, and got a very light sentence.
Though for all I know it’s also happened in Connecticut, and just doesn’t come up as easily in a google search.
I’m sure from your links that it was Maine. Don’t know why Connecticut stuck in my brain.
I remember the story about the woman who was shot in her backyard while wearing white mittens. Hadn’t realized it was that long ago.
Interesting twist: Ms. Wood was buried in New York State, next to her sister. (My guess is that her sister may have been special-needs and they wanted to be buried together?)
Ours ended up with a set of dangerous rapids, rafts overturned, people being buffeted by underwater rocks, and one woman’s head being bloodied as she clung onto a rock and yelled for help.
I guess it was team-building, because everyone else got her to shore.
This story reminds me of a Boy Scout hiking trip I participated in a few years ago in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We were a large group of around 20-25 boys and adults that informally broke up into several subgroups for the descent from Mizpah Spring Hut down the Crawford Path to Crawford Notch. I realized about 15 minutes into our descent that I had not seen one of the older adults since we left the hut. He was a relatively slow hiker so I knew he was almost certainly not in the vanguard, so where was he? I brought this to the attention of the group leader, who was a very experienced hiker and very familiar with the area (but evidently not good at keeping track of a large group).
He immediately surmised that the missing adult had taken a wrong turn onto another trail right at the beginning of the trek and was likely descending into the wilderness. He raced after where he thought the missing adult was going and managed to catch up to him and retrieve him. The missing hiker was in fact on the wrong trail. He had taken the Webster Cliff trail which descends for a while and then goes up to another mountain summit. It’s anyone’s guess if he ever would’ve figured out he was on the wrong trail; the guy was pretty stubborn so he might have pressed on indefinitely until he got hopelessly lost. In fact, he never even realized he was on the wrong trail until the leader caught up to him. He thought he was still following the group.
I later insisted on a thorough group discussion of lessons learned to ensure nothing like that ever happened again.
isn’t it standard proceedure to have people “from the organization” of the hike LEAD and TRAIL the group, iow all the clients/boyscouts/etc… would be herded and sandwiched in between the knowledgable folk?
and nobody is allowed to overtake the first and nobody is allowed fo fall behind the last guide (and if somebody falls back behind the last guide, the whole thing is being paused to allow for a regroup…)
Yes, that is standard procedure. Unfortunately the adult who took the wrong trail was in fact the Scout leader who was [self-]assigned to be the trailing leader (mainly because he was the slowest hiker, not because of any particular knowledge on his part—which was a mistake, in retrospect). He thought he was following the group as the sweep, but instead took the wrong trail at the start. (I suspect he stopped for some reason at the outset and thereby lost sight of the group.)
The failure was making sure that all of the leaders were thoroughly familiar with the trail, either from experience or by reviewing the trail map. We also should have taken steps to ensure that nobody lost sight of the rest of the group. The leader who got lost had been a Scout leader for decades, but was also a bit arrogant and over-confident in his abilities, I think.
To this day, I don’t think he fully realizes what a potential disaster it would have been if I hadn’t realized he was missing.
My family has skied at the Brian Head resort in Utah. The entire town and resort is about 10 kft. Even* coming from the L.A. foothills (about twice the elevation of Florida’s high point), we still suffer. We typically have various combos of headaches, bellyaches, loss of appetite, lack of energy. It all goes away as we drive back to the interstate highway.
*Read this wryly.
similar story here:
I went from 0m elevation (pacific ocean) to 4400m (14,500ft) altitude within 2 hours in the atacama dessert … I did not have mayor health issues, but couldn’t get the math of "37 + 16 = " for the love of god done … so basically I turned into an 8 year old - speaking from a cognitive pov.
I have complete understanding for those high-altitude climbers doing stupid things (e.g. closing oxygene flow from the oxygene bottle instead of increasing it) - without even being aware of it …
These stories sound somewhat similar to people who get carbon monoxide poisoning. I heard a story about someone who was suffering from carbon monoxide and was so confused that he couldn’t remember how to use a doorknob. He was looking at the doorknob and knew it had something to do with opening the door, but he couldn’t remember specifically what he was supposed to do to the doorknob to get the door open. I guess it’s somewhat similar in that it’s confusion from lack of oxygen.
I mean, I could, but I’d need paper & a pen(cil).
However, my lack of math skills are pretty legendary