View Single Post
Old 11-26-2022, 07:33 AM   #12
thinkxingu
Senior Member
 
thinkxingu's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 5,939
Thanks: 1,152
Thanked 1,959 Times in 1,210 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by fatlazyless View Post
This newspaper article ...... https://www.concordmonitor.com/hiker...-lost-48938126 ...... 11/23/2022 ..... suggests to me she was wearing either a small day pack or a trail running, mini pack that's used for trail running as opposed to a larger backpack?

She was hiking/running the Falling Waters trail, going up, and the Old Bridle Path trail, coming down, a summit loop over Mt Little Haystack-4760', Mt Lincoln-5089', and Mt Lafayette-5260', starting and finishing from the Old Bridle Path trail head parking lot off Route 93 within the Franconia Notch Parkway.

So, what's the distance and elevation gain and elevation loss for this trail hiking loop? About 8.8-miles ..... https://www.northeasthikes.com/littl...onia-notch-nh/ ..... elevation gain and loss ..... you go do it!

When they found her body she was barefoot with or without socks(?), maybe, so could be she lost her trail running shoes while moving through some deeper dense, wind blown snow plus maybe being very cold, freez'n cold and maybe very scared-to-death.
More than likely, her possessions were scattered because she'd become hypothermic and no longer able to make rational decisions.

There's no doubt she had decided on fast and light, which a bunch of people do every day. The outcome of hiking on that threshold, of course, depends on the hiker's overall skill set and familiarity with the terrain.

The turn that people are speculating she missed is a well-known fault-point that has been identified in the past through other rescues. If that is accurate, it's an even more disappointing outcome as she may literally have been one turn off.

I do my best to avoid judgment in circumstances like this because the reality is that hiking, especially in winter, comes with inherent risks...many of which are unable to be controlled for.

In this scenario, however, the victim was woefully unprepared starting with the fact that at 5AM, almost two hours before sunrise, she was navigating by cellphone flashlight.

There is no consolation in that, of course, but a grim reminder of the importance of preparedness.

Sent from my SM-G990U1 using Tapatalk
thinkxingu is offline   Reply With Quote