Death in NH White Mountains??

[TenSeven]

I just read this article and it speaks of a death in the White Mountains. Has anybody heard of this?? Any details??

News story. (http://hispeed.rogers.com/news/world/story.jsp?cid=w011559A)

[flatlander]

Hiker's body recovered from White Mountains, according to story in 1/16/04 Manchester Union Leader.
An Army National Guard helicopter spotted the body of a man on South Twin Mountain. At the time, the helicopter recorded an air temperature of minus 25 F. The man was hiking the Twinway Trail.

news story (http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=31764)

[ski&ride]

Wow, that's the first I've heard about it. It's not making headlines in the local paper here in Southern NH, but I did just find an article which mentioned it:

Hiker death (http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040116/NEWS02/40116009)

ski&ride

[el-bagr]

Word is that the deceased was a NH park ranger at Monadnock.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/2770221/detail.html

[el-bagr]

NH Fish & Game has issued a press release:

http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Newsroom/News_2004/News_2004_Q1/Hiker_Holmes_IDed_011604.htm

[bfast]

I am curious about the policy of waiting 'till daybreak to rescue people...do you recall another incident this fall of a boy getting lost after wandering away from his home in lincoln, NH(Loon MT.)? He was found dead of exposure the next day. I was a little bit angry. He could have been saved if they went out that night.He was found by a river a mile or 2 away.I think it common to follow and explore a river if you're a kid.It certainly wouldn't have been that dangerous to have gone out and tried.If it is 40 below-yes- its alot more dangerous, but if you wait 'till morning, you know what the outcome is usually-your just finding a body to remove. Any thoughts?

[RR]

I met Holmes on several trips to Monadnock. Seemed well schooled and a reasonable sort of fellow. Tough break for his friends and family.

[DMC]

If it's dangerous out... then rescuers should stay home.. It's been way past dangerous at night.. This guy froze to death and he was a pro... Or at least he had experience..

They don't send rescuers into areas that have high avi danger either.

I totally agree with this.. No need to put more people into harms way..

What a horrible way to die.... sux...

[TenSeven]

I don't know the incident that you're referring to or it's details. I can only think that there is a plausible explanation as to why they wait until daybreak. Having been in situations involving the attempted rescue of children I can say that Emergency Service Personnel will do almost anything and everything they can, sometimes against better judgement. If you attempt a rescue and it goes horribly wrong for some reason then further lives and resources are placed in jeopardy and success is unlikely.
A documentary called "The Drowning Machine" illustrates this best. It shows live footage of an attempt to recover the body of a man (or 2) that lost his life in a flowover dam. I believe seven rescuers also lost their lives in the attempt.
We put our faith in those that risk their own lives to save ours in an emergency. Often serious decisions are made in mere seconds and minutes. It's natural but sometimes unfair to judge them in hindsight.

[bfast]

Hello TenSeven in Canada!
To give you a little more detail-the overnight temps were upper 30's, low 40's. the boy was 11 or 12 yrs. old. He probably had no clue what to do or how to stay warm.I don't know why they couldn't go that night. I think in this case it was necessary to save this boy and it was reasonable conditions...If I had known, I would have tried with my own volunteer group....

[TenSeven]

It can be a tough call to make either way.

[AlpineZone]

bfast:
I am curious about the policy of waiting 'till daybreak to rescue people...do you recall another incident this fall of a boy getting lost after wandering away from his home in lincoln, NH(Loon MT.)? He was found dead of exposure the next day. I was a little bit angry. He could have been saved if they went out that night.He was found by a river a mile or 2 away.I think it common to follow and explore a river if you're a kid.I'm not too sure about that. He was found 2+ miles uphill in the valley. Apparently, he made a common mistake of trying to get higher to see where you are. He got lost late in the afternoon and even if a search team was able to get organized quickly, they probably couldn't cover much ground that first night. Chances are with temps in the 30's and the wind and rain, he didn't survive that first night. And he wasn't found until a number of days later.

[el-bagr]

10-7, here's a link to another lengthy discussion of the missing boy incident (http://www.viewsfromthetop.com/forums/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=578) from mid-October 2003.

[NH_tele]

I would DEFINITELY not go out into the woods without a below zero down bag, and stove at the very least with the kind of weather we've been having lately....

It's COLD out there during the day! :eek:

[TenSeven]

El-bagr,

I couldn't open that 'lengthy discussion' link.

[TenSeven]

El-bagr...finally read the lengthy discussion. A tragedy for sure. From what I read no one had criticism for the S&R Team and Volunteers. They had some 500 people searching and the search was conducted 24 hours around the clock.
It appears that there were so many variables existing in this scenario. I don't think it's fair to criticize what happened there. Sounds like everything that could be done, was.

[NH_tele]

I'm actually somewhat puzzled by the incident (the original one, with the ranger in the Whites, not the little boy). It sounds like he had full over-night gear- good sleeping bag, tent, food, a stove, etc. He also was a ranger, which implies that he has at least some experience. My initial reaction, since he was out trying to bag 4000-footers was that he might have left his pack behind & "slack-packed" it up to the top of a mountain, with the intention of returning down the same trail & picking up his pack in an hour or two (fairly common practice in the summer, but NOT something that you'd want to do in the winter, or inclement weather of any kind, especially above treeline).

However, it said that he was only a few hundred feet (yards?) from his pack, so that would rule that out. He must just have had a severe case of "get-there-itis" and not been willing to sense that he was getting cold, and just hunker down for the night, or a few hours, or whatever it took to get warm. His judgement was obviously impaired by hypothermia by the end, since he dropped his pack, and was shedding clothes (when you are near death from hypothermia, you actually feel very hot, so you try to take off clothes, and sometimes even do something like go swimming in a partially frozen stream). However, hypothermia is not something that just happens in an instant, so I'm surprised that he (especially since he had experience) wasn't able to sense that, at the very least, he was getting very sweaty, and then colder...

When it's below zero, or close to it, it's NOT time to try to "just go those last few miles". If you start to get very cold, or very sweaty you HAVE to change something; even if it means taking off a layer, you don't want to get sweaty, because that leads to cold...