Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Hiker dies in White Mountains of New Hampshire

I wonder if she always went solo.

She was above timberline.

Never hike alone? I've read that in books too. If I couldn't hike alone I'd make sure my hiking partner had a pistol. So he could shoot me in the head.

If you never hike alone, when you go hunting you must not get very far into the woods? Or do you always hunt with someone else?

You're just a dumb-ass who let your ego get the better of you and you probably voted for Obama.

Ooops, sorry, premature.

Not the first time, I'm sure.

First time today.......

I never follow advice i always hunt alone

When I first heard about this, my thought was "Dumb Twat." After reading the article, I'm now beginning to wonder. I'm reminded of this:



As a post-adventurer whose age and circumstance has caused him to spend more time on the couch, I can truthfully say that working that margin was always an issue. Looking back on my days of pushing the envelope, there was always a certain willfulness. I would have denied it openly, and probably denied it even to myself. As a result, I've been places where I was the first vertebrate, and one of the places has my name on it. I also get reminded of the places I've been and the things I've done every morning when I get out of bed. The weather turns, and this or that gets wonky, and it all comes back.

At some point the risks add up. At the same time I was giving up my most dangerous adventures, my dear friend that had been doing contract work for the Israeli military got a premonition, and decided to sit out the next op. Within 6 months, every member of her team was dead-- the Palestinians had changed tactics. We both congratulated ourselves and went about having our suburban after-lives.

Obviously, this lady was a winner. Obviously, this woman liked to take risks. Still, I have to say that part of the adventure game is knowing when to quit, when to change focus, when to come down off the freakin' ledge. I've revised my view that this woman was stupid, but either she wanted to play this game until there was no escape or she did not see ahead of time that her number was up. In the end, she lost.

I think it was just what it was...

I hunt alone a LOT. In fact almost exclusively now with new lease rules where we deer hunt. But it would be hard to get into too much trouble there. Maybe wet and cold but thats about it...and can find back to dry and warm within 30 minutes on foot from about anywhere on the place at a fast pace.

I flew to AK and hunted solo this fall. Had no other options. Just the way it worked out. Killed a bull moose, and handled it all out there totally on my own. Any number of things could have happened. But they didn't. No guarantee of that next time.

Though I sure hope my wife comes along on all the rest of my AK trips. Way too much work for one person to do when you pull the trigger. LOL.

I say bravo for the gal. I'd rather die in teh woods or above treeline than at home or in a hospital etc.....Not that its any of our choices...

Even the experts make wrong choices sometimes. A few years ago, 2 teams, 1 American and 1 German, were climbing a mountain in the Himalayas. It was a 3000' shear face, almost totally vertical. Both teams were at the 2000' point when a really wicked storm came in. The Americans descended but the Germans decided to stick it out. They strung tents from the ropes and hunkered down for the night. By morning every one of them had frozen to death.

Then you obviously don't think it's very good advice. So why even bring it up in this context?

Great post Shaman.

To be honest with you, no i don't think it is good advice when hunting if you want to kill a buck.

I didn't ask whether you thought it was good advice, I concluded that you obviously don't.

What I asked was, why even bring it up?

"Overnight temperatures plummeted to 30 degrees below zero and the winds were gusting at more than 100 mph."



Yeah okay, great time to be climbing a mountain.

She was trying to be 'badass' and died in the process.



100 mile per [bleep]' hour wind and -30F?!


On a cliff?


Not a very smart idea. I'd ride the damn couch if that was remotely close to being a possibility.


I didn't bother hunting flatland mule deer on the last day of deer season because it was -15F with a decent breeze in the morning. Pussy chit compared to what this woman was attempting.

Walk in would have been fine. Turning back into the breeze for 2-3 miles sucks when it's getting dark.
Could not image 'purposely' mountain climbing in conditions like that.

Just not into freezing my face off that much. One thing to be close to help, another deal when you could be several miles away from anything.

And now for the obvious ...... the Husband knew what he was doing and what may/will happen.

-30 with 100 mph wind and people on here are saying she "wasn't prepared? Heck, NOBODY'S prepared for those conditions! The human body isn't designed for that and the best gear isn't designed for it either.
NO one with any real experience would do such a foolish thing. In fact the most experienced would be the first to avoid such folly.

So that leaves me with a couple likely scenarios:
She had the mother of all brain farts and never thought to check the weather or...
She indeed decided this would be her last trip and was suicidal, which doesn't explain her activating a rescue beacon.

I can't believe someone with her experience would intentionally go out in those conditions if she knew those were the conditions she would likely face. I have to think she was caught unawares by a surprise storm.

New England hasn't exactly been the Bahamas the last week or so. They've had record snowfall and cold. We'll never know what her thinking, if any, was.

Thanks.
That quote from Tom Robbins is still framed in my bathroom at home. Years ago, I read it and suddenly realized a basic truth about myself.

In regards to soloing, I did a lot of it. More than anything, I just liked being by myself and relying on myself. However, I never solo'd caving. The reason why was that it was way too dangerous. Not so much for me, but it was going to be for the people that tried to retrieve my body. If I was climbing solo and screwed up, I was going to more than likely fall into a place that was easy to get to. They'd scrape me off the rocks and that would be that. Going underground was considerably different. Even if I just broke a leg, chances were that folks were going to be risking their lives trying to get me out. What's more, with solo work, it was more likely that someone was going to call the sheriff's dept instead of the NSS rescue hotline, and a bunch of inexperienced deputies and paramedics would be trying to get me out. Look up the name Floyd Collins and get back to me. They even made a musical about him-- biggest news story of 1925.

This thing with the Russian chick kind of galls me the more I think of it. It's one thing to go get your ass out onto thin ice to quell your inner demon. It's another thing to go out, get your dumb ass frozen and then pop smoke, hoping the cavalry will come.

One other thing, and then I will get off my rant. I just want to put a bug in y'all's ear. File a trip plan. Writing for deer hunting media exposes me a lot to guys who like to leave and go hunting where no one knows where they are or when they are coming back--No cell phones, no explanations, nada.

I cannot emphasize enough:

1) Leave a trip plan with someone you trust
2) Give specific deadlines. "If I'm not by Monday night. . ."
3) Give specifics of who to notify, and where to search
4) Give the location of your vehicle
5) Give a location of where you will head in case of trouble
6) If you carry nothing else, carry a whistle

This is not for you. This is for your rescuers and next of kin. You may be comfortable with becoming mulch, but one of your stupid loved ones may call the sheriff a day early, they put a team out on the mountain or down the hole and some good people may be put in harm's way.

Take all this from a guy who made national news once. Somehow I became the 5th unnamed caver in a big flood-in story back in 1982. The truth was, I knew about the trip, but had not been invited. Despite this, my name ended up on the AP wire, and I spent the next week answering phone calls. Supposedly I was mentioned on the network news, but I never got confirmation. The cavers had known of the trouble ahead and floated a cache sealed in an oil drum ahead of time. They were fat and happy until the water receded, a lot better than the people trying to rescue them.

People that don't do this are rude, IMO.

If you've ever been involved in a search and rescue, you know that the people doing the searching want information. When the only information given is "He said he was going north for a few days" or some other vague horseschit, people immediately begin to not care if you're dead.



Travis

Yep, and finding a friggin' corpse ain't much fun.