AT hike, AT Institute and all wilderness/hiking "training schools"

Wilbah

Adventurer
So this may sound like a harsh post and I do NOT mean it to be that way. I mean it as a comment but one that I think bears making. I don't know the folks at the Appalachian Trail Institute, I have no axe to grind with them, but the death of AT hiker Gerry Largay, and follow up story is the impetus for posting this. I welcome any comments about this.

Here's a series of stories about the whole thing if you aren't familiar with it:

http://appalachiantrail.com/?s=largay

For those of you with a subscription to Northwoods Journal (or can get it on a newsstand) this month's edition has a decent write-up including (in a very polite way) some of the mistakes made.

The quick backstory is that 2013 a woman attempted a through hike of the AT. She was 66 had done a fair amount of local hiking. She started mid-trail and planned to go back and hike south after finishing the northern section. She hiked most of it with a friend while her husband leapfrogged them in his car meeting them at various trail crossings for re-equipping, hotels, etc. At some point her hiking partner had to leave and the woman continued on her own in Maine. Unfortunately she left the trail to go to the bathroom at some point and got lost. Sadly she was not found until two years later when her remains were found.

There are a lot of lessons that come out of this story but a couple of very striking ones. And one that really jumped out at me about the ATI. And again, I don't mean this as an attack on them but I do wonder if this event will cause them to add some things to their course.

The ATI offers a 5 day course for people planning a through hike. The hiker in this story took the course. But from the NSJ article the course does not provide map and compass teaching (in the "What to bring" section of their website they don't reference a compass). Again, according to the NSJ article they don't teach how to make a fire. According to the woman's journal entries when she was lost she wanted to build a fire but was worried about not have rocks for a fire ring. WHAT?!! Is this an example of PC killing someone? She later made a fire of sorts (scorched tree trunks were found) but it was either too little too late, or she just couldn't keep it going focusing on the tree trunks? In that area of Maine, downed tress are virtually everywhere so she should have been able to make a big enough fire to matter. but for one reason or another she couldn't/didn't.

Some comments- any organization that professes to teach you all you need to know about something such as ATI did, bears some responsibility in not teaching someone how to make a fire, how to use a compass and map, requiring that people know how to triangulate positions, etc. etc. If someone with no knowledge of something takes the school they are misled into thinking they know enough, but clearly given the Maine portion of the AT, that is not accurate. Now in their defense they may tell people "we focus on these items" and urge hikers to learn other skills, I have no idea. I just find it odd that someone attempting to hike a 2,160 mile trail doesn't need a compass and good topo maps? Are we all supposed to just rely on trail markers? Or equally bad/worse yet a GPS?

Ms. Largay clearly bears responsibility in this. Just as Laurence Gonzales states in his great book Deep Survival, most of these types of occurrences are a series of small innocuous decisions that magnify each other leading to the crisis that kills the person. In this case she left behind her SPOT locator in her hotel room, she went off trail in a very thick portion of the woods, she didn't make a big-a** fire that SAR could have seen....

(If you haven't read his book I recommend it (no tie to the author...just good info all the way around) https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Survival-Who-Lives-Dies/dp/0393326152 )

Anyway....sorry this seems like a bit of a stream of consciousness rant, I don't mean it that way. I just urge anyone who steps out in to the "wilderness" be that in their back yard or on a trail or anywhere else, to be prepared. Map and compass is a basic skill set to know. How to build a fire, even in wet conditions, is a must (small fire starter tabs and some dryer lint is very very easy to carry if you cant easily make on from natural materials), a signal mirror and whistle are light, as is a single waterproof nylon tarp and safety blanket. With these items most people can survive long enough to be found. If you absolutely MUST go off trail for some reason (bathroom), 100' of paracord weighs 4 oz. Tie it to a tree on the trail so you can get back. And it has a myriad of other uses should you need it. If you're going to hike a trail for a number of days be it the AT or any other similar trail additional equipment and the requisite knowledge for its use is critical.

But I also urge anyone who takes a "school" course to take some initiative on their own to learn more than what the school is teaching. The focus of the school may or may not be what is necessary in an emergency, they may be focused on "living on the trail". But the minute you get "off the trail" especially in a place such as the AT in western ME, you are now in full on wilderness and the required skills change dramatically.

I welcome anyone's thoughts/ideas on this. And my prayers go to Ms. Largay's family. She really seemed like a great woman. I wish I had been able to meet her at some point.
 

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