Personal beacon to the rescue at Mt. Washington, too much snow in May

[marzNC]

Apparently there is still a lot of snow on Mt. Washington. A couple of hikers on a multi-day hike had to activate a personal locator beacon to ask for rescue after getting lost off trail and getting stuck in deep snow in after mid-May.

May 21, 2018
Lost hikers rescued from Dry River by Black Hawk

 

[SallyCat]

Mt. Washington's weather patterns are unique and you really need to be prepared to be out overnight. I did a hut-to-hut one year and the crew at Madison Springs was anxiously waiting late into the evening for a hiker who had hurt her ankle badly enough to dramatically slow her pace. If the weather had gone south on her in just the wrong way, hypothermia would have been a real danger, and this was late June.

 

[newboots]

I long to be judgey and snarky about these two, what with the resources they used in their ill-advised trip off trail. It’s easy to judge. I hope I never cause rescuers to hunt for me in wee hours in steep, deep icy snow but I’m also not planning to avoid risk and live in bubble wrap. If they were being uninformed, though, bad hikers!