View Full Version : Should I stay or should I go?
A general question to the group on hiking etiquette:
You are hiking with a loose knit group that you hooked up with on whiteblaze on a section hike on the AT. I choose the AT because it may be wild, but it isn't wilderness.
The weather is good, no serious snow or rain moving in.
However, one member injures something that slows them down considerably, say, like they hurt their foot.
The injury isn't life threatening, they've backpacked before and have good gear, plenty of food, and water is plentiful, but it will take them 2 to 5 days to hike out where normally it would only take them a day.
Do you stay with them or do you strike off on your own?
Wise Old Owl
09-26-2009, 18:30
INteresting question, if you are the leader of the group you inform them to work together to get the hiker out, If you are responsible depending the the severity of the injury you stay by the person and hike back the way you came if that is shorter and call for assistance. Or send someone ahead or behind to get out in front to bring help faster.
In my case, a fellow hiker with a injured knee, we were four days from cival help so I went up into the mountain and found a very cold spring and iced up the knee and hiked there some four times with a bladder for this guy. The next day the improvement was significant and did not require eme folks.
MichaelRedBeard
11-25-2009, 02:12
Well if you are a good friend or decent person and dont have a rush to be anywhere soon, Id say you'd probably stay with them.
MichaelRedBeard
11-25-2009, 02:14
Ut, did read the fact that you just met them. No, just go unless you like the company or unless they are seriously injured.
elmotoots
11-25-2009, 13:42
Good question
I answered the question by puttng myself in place of the injuried person, and asking, what would I truly want the healthy person to do.
I would want to go on and hike the hike, BUT I WOULD NOT. I do not have many friends but the ones I do have, know I would not leave them injuried no matter how serious the injury is.
If I go hiking with someone, it is because I have the desire to make new friends. So it does't matter how loose knit the group starts out.
Elmo
I would stay with them, and help carry their gear, at least till they got to a road. A non-life-threatening injury can easily become a life-threatening injury, and it's good to have backup just in case. (For example... a twisted ankle causes a fall where they break their arm or cut a large open wound). Better to just play it safe.
Also, for me the point is just being out in the wilderness... distance doesn't much matter. So an extra day spent helping out an injured person is no big deal.
harryfred
11-25-2009, 14:11
You don't leave anyone behind.
Stay with them till they are off the trail and safe. Continue on if you want. I wouldn't leave them and I hope they wouldn't leave me.
atraildreamer
11-25-2009, 16:30
...discussed in another handbook:
"Do unto others as..." :-?
SunnyWalker
11-25-2009, 20:18
I'd sure want help if it was me. So I guess I answered the question.
gunner76
11-25-2009, 22:09
The last time I was with a group, two of us left the others after a couple of days as they were carrying more cameras and camera gear than hiking gear and stoping every few minutes to take photos. We hiked our own hike and we all got back togeather at a friends house after the hike.
ShelterLeopard
11-25-2009, 22:49
Ah, help 'em out. You can just ditch a hurt friend.
Though you can't stick with someone forever- if (on my thru) someone gets hurt, I'll definitely help them get to town, and won't leave 'em until then, but depending on how much I like them, I'd probably beast right back outa town.
kolokolo
11-25-2009, 22:50
A part of me would want to leave them and hike on, but I would stay with them. If they were already injured and slow, too many bad things could happen on their way out. A minor inconvenience for me could save a lot of trouble for them.
So, let me elaborate just a touch ...
My first big trip after being out of the sport for 20 years was to the rockies, along with my 12 year old son, with a group of 20 people I had met up with online ... the short version of the story is that I got a bad case of altitude sickness and my 12 year old son had to take care of me for a couple of days .... most of the group just hiked on, never asking, never caring what happened ... they knew there was a problem and just didn't care .. that's what amazed me to no end.
5 people opted to stay and help out .... three days later one of the group that had hiked on also developed a bad case of altitude sickness (he was peeing brown, which is a bad sign) he had pushed himself because he didn't want to be abandoned ... that group left him behind as well. One from the few that stayed behind hiked up to check on the other group and ended up finding him sick and alone in his tent and bringing him back so we could help him out.
The last thing one of the guys who hiked on said to him was "tough luck, but out here it's survival of the fittest, you know?".
This is the primary reason that I haven't been back to the forums on Adpacker since.
Since that time I have run into this from the other side 4 times on trips I've been on, where someone fell behind, fell sick or injured, or needed help. Each time I've changed my trip plans and helped out, once with a guy in jeans and all cotton clothes that had gone into stage two hypothermia, another was a young man from Argentina that had been on the trail for two weeks and had not treated his water (yep, glad I packed the Immodium on that trip) and was getting very dehydrated.
I learned a number of great lessons on that hike .... some of which I wish I hadn't had to have learned ... but rest assured, if I pass by when your hurt or down on your luck you'll have company on your hike out, you can count on it.
ShelterLeopard
11-25-2009, 23:51
I will always help. Always.
ShelterLeopard
11-25-2009, 23:55
I read your last post captn, and it greatly interests me, but I am so tird that I can barrly type, so I'll comment in the morning.
ShelterLeopard
11-25-2009, 23:56
Edit:
Ah, help 'em out. You can't just ditch a hurt friend.
sylvia_claire
11-26-2009, 00:15
you do indicate in the example that it is not just you and the other person but a group. now I don't know how large of a group you are thinking of, but I would think that some of the members of the group could leave, especially if some of you had time constraints and others didn't. Hopefully at least one of you would both get along well with the injured and have the time for the extra days on the trail. you would be a nice (note that says nice not good) person for staying with the group, though if it were just you and the injured person I think it turns into much more of an ethical problem. You also have to take into account the rest of the group though and whether you are wronging them by leaving as you are making it harder for them to leave if they need to. Ultimatly I'd say you just need to have a meeting with everyone to work this out to best meet everyones needs, but then that could go rather badly depending on the group.
so in conclusion I have no idea and I hope your group can work this out without vilifying anyside of the issue
-sc
sylvia_claire
11-26-2009, 00:29
Captn, I sorry you had that experience. May I ask, did those five people who stayed stayed stay with you for good or did they eventually move on too? And what do you think the groups should do in this situation? especially is it objectional that anyone moved on, or was it the manner in which they did that was offensive?
-sc
JokerJersey
11-26-2009, 12:20
I think I'd let the person decide what they wanted from me. I'd ask them if they needed help and let that answer dictate whether I'd stay or go.
If they said they didn't need me to stay, I'd try to leave word ahead at the next road crossing or town so someone will know a sick/injured person will be inbound.
If they asked me to stay...then you do everything you can do.
There are other concerns though. Would you stay 2 extra days to help a sick person if it meant losing your job? Or not feeding your pet at home? Or, if you have no cell service, a terrified spouse is at home after you don't come back?
Captn, I sorry you had that experience. May I ask, did those five people who stayed stayed stay with you for good or did they eventually move on too? And what do you think the groups should do in this situation? especially is it objectional that anyone moved on, or was it the manner in which they did that was offensive?
-sc
The 5 are still fast friends and probably will be for life.
I would never expect to keep the group from moving on .... however I would have thought that there would have been a discussion around it ... The end result was as it probably would have been in any event.
All there was was dust on the trail as they moved on, not knowing, or even caring, for that matter, what happened to a fellow hiker.
The question really becomes a simple one ... am I my brothers keeper?
The Weasel
11-26-2009, 16:42
And how do you know it's not life-threatening? A sore leg translates into unstable walking, and then a fall. A fever translates into passing out. "Cramps" turns into appendicitis. You're not a doctor. You do what you would hope others would do for you. If you need to be told what that is, you would'nt understand. So I assume you know the answer.
TW
drifters quest
11-28-2009, 23:48
Hmmm.. well, for a larger group I would say it isn't neccesary for all the hikers to stay, but I think in terms of injury or illness it is best to have at least two hikers stay behind. When I go spelunking we always go in at least groups of three since it is easier for two people to get someone out then one person by themself. Also, if the person took a turn for the worse, you would have someone to stay with them and someone to seek emergency help. Who stays and who hikes on will depend upon a number of things and I think as a group that is something you need to decide.
sheepdog
11-29-2009, 09:48
So, let me elaborate just a touch ...
The last thing one of the guys who hiked on said to him was "tough luck, but out here it's survival of the fittest, you know?".
That is cold !!!
Plodderman
11-30-2009, 10:21
If I came with them for the hike I would stay with them but if it is a group I met on the trail I would hike on. Ran into a guy who hurt his foot on the AT in the Smokies so I gave him my hiking stick for support and went on my way. He had another hiker with him.
If you go there will be trouble. If you stay it will be double. :banana:D:banana:D:banana