Teen hiker lost for 3 nights in NH is found safe

[samanthajane13]

By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, Associated Press Writer David Tirrell-wysocki, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 39 mins ago

PINKHAM NOTCH, N.H. – A 17-year-old Eagle Scout planning an ambitious day hike and then lost for three nights around the highest mountain in the Northeast was found Tuesday and reunited with his family.

Scott Mason was spotted Tuesday morning on a ridge northwest of Mount Washington, Fish and Game Dept. Major Tim Acerno said. He was reunited with his family at a command center about two hours later, hugging them and slapping his father on the back.

"He looked a lot older. He looked sad and older," said his mother, Jory, who was trembling with emotion.

A short time later, Mason was taken by ambulance to a hospital to have pain in one of his legs checked out, Acerno said.

Mason, of Halifax, Mass., headed up Mount Washington early Saturday and was planning to hike 17 challenging miles in one day. The 6,288-foot mountain is notorious for its unpredictable and often treacherous weather, including the highest surface wind speed ever recorded on Earth — 231 mph. Forecasts for Tuesday afternoon warned of possible thunderstorms and wind gusts to 75 mph.

Searchers had been following intermittent boot tracks consistent with someone who was disoriented or lost, Acerno said. Searchers in six teams of four used ropes and temporary bridges as they approached the area from two directions, but had difficulty moving in waist-deep, soft snow, Acerno said.

The unusually warm, humid weather since Saturday worked for and against Mason: Searchers weren't worried about hypothermia, but they said the melting snow had led to high rivers that would be difficult for him to cross.

After learning of the rescue, the teen's father, Mike Mason, said he believed his son didn't panic.

"I hung in there because I had a sense he would hunker down and he was gonna pass this test," Mason said. "This is his basketball, football, this is what he loves."

Mason's mother said he was an experienced hiker, but not in extreme conditions, and probably did not have overnight gear.

Mason, a Boy Scout since age 11, has spent many weekends hiking in the White Mountains and became an Eagle Scout in October, said Tom Goldrick, his scoutmaster in Halifax.

"He's the most experienced hiker in our scout troop. ... We all had a very positive outlook," Goldrick said.

He said Mason has the top leadership position in the troop and has taught hiking and camping skills.

Before leaving an Appalachian Mountain Club bunkhouse Saturday morning, Mason said he planned to climb Mount Washington, then take the Appalachian Trail north to the summits of Mounts Jefferson, Adams and Madison. He left the ridgeline around Mount Clay, descending into an area known as the Great Gulf Wilderness, where he was blocked by a river.

He was spotted about 10:40 a.m. Tuesday. Rescuers guided him to the summit, where a snow vehicle and then a pickup truck brought him down to his waiting family.

Mike Mason said he is sure his son will hike again.

"Not alone. We'll let him join the AMC. He'll hike again," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/..._missing_hiker

[samanthajane13]

Stranded NH hiker brings lesson home for scouts

By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, Associated Press Writer David Tirrell-wysocki, Associated Press Writer – 11 mins ago

CONCORD, N.H. – The 17-year-old stranded on New Hampshire's Mount Washington put his Eagle Scout skills to the test, sleeping in the crevice of a boulder and jump-starting fires with hand sanitizer gel.

And now he has an important lesson to relay to his scout troop back home: "I would never hike alone again in snow conditions."

Scott Mason, of Halifax, Mass., headed up the popular mountain for a long day hike on Saturday, but decided to take a shortcut down after spraining his ankle.

He chose a route he had discussed with the staff at the Appalachian Mountain Club lodge where he began his hike.

"They had information that it was clear at the time," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

But that emergency route led him into unexpected trouble: rising water and deep snow caused by unseasonably warm weather.

"When I got down there, the rivers were much more rapid than should have been," he said. He decided instead to cross earlier than he had planned, putting him in an area of no trails.

Wearing plastic bags inside his boots to keep his feet dry, he began trying to find a way out. Mason said even though he was stranded, he wasn't lost because he had hiked the area before and recognized the landmarks.

He sank several times into mountain runoff that was hidden beneath waist-deep snow.

"The runoff was about 2 1/2 feet deep and probably running 30 mph," he said. "The guides confirmed I could have gotten sucked in if I had fallen all the way in, and I would have been gone."

Saturday and Sunday nights, Mason crawled beneath snow-covered pine trees and hunkered down in a bivvy sack, a waterproof sleeping bag shell. To keep warm, he started fires with a hand sanitzer gel.

"You can put it right on what you are burning, and even on the snow you can make a fire," he said. "I was able to make a fire just because I ripped down some big evergreen branches."

By Sunday afternoon, his snow-covered route down still blocked by raging runoff, Mason decided he had to go back up the mountain.

On Monday, he tried signaling a helicopter, waving his hiking poles and reflective bivvy sack. But the crew was focused below his level, more concerned that he might have tried to take a trail across a river and been swept away.

"It was a little disappointing," he said.

He found a large crevice in a rock that night that was partially protected from the wind, built a higher windscreen with rocks and slept until well after daylight Tuesday, when he resumed his slow trek toward the summit to reach the weather observatory.

"I was going to hike to the observatory and kind of knock on their door and try to get some hot cocoa and a ride down," he said.

That's when he and a search team spotted each other. The rescuers give him a ride down the 6,288-foot mountain Tuesday morning into the waiting arms of his parents, sister and aunt.

Mason thanked rescuers who endured the treacherous conditions to look for him.

"Anyone can go through the ice into an underground stream," he said. "They were risking their lives to try to save me."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090430/..._missing_hiker

[samanthajane13]

Teen fighting $25,000 fine for NH mountain rescue

CONCORD, N.H. – A Massachusetts teenager says he will fight the $25,000 fine by New Hampshire for the cost of his mountain rescue.

Eighteen-year-old Scott Mason told WCVB-TV of Boston that he doesn't have any way of paying the fine. Mason said he was shocked when he got the letter from the state Fish and Game Department.

The Halifax, Mass., teen spent three nights alone on Mount Washington in April after he sprained an ankle and veered off marked trails.

He had been praised for utilizing his Eagle Scout skills. But authorities say he wasn't prepared for the conditions he encountered and shouldn't have set out on such an ambitious hike.

Mason says he sent $1,000 to rescuers and is disappointed New Hampshire officials didn't talk to him before fining him.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090720/...VuZmlnaHRpbmc-

[wind149]

Well DUH? An inexperienced hiker on MT Washington who gets lost or injured happens all the time and I have been there many times, and even in the summer, the winds can really whip around, I have pics of myself holding onto a tree to balance myself as the wind speeds were about in the 60 mph range and even in July, it was only about 50 degrees at the summit. Now there are well marked trail heads, but you know some morons are gonna do their own thing, like the rangers don't know about Tuckermen's Ravine? You could lose three 747's in that area and never see them from the top of the mountain! The rangers spend many hours looking for morons like this clown, they send out teams on foot, plus by air using infared cameras because the terrain is so dense and these dedicated men and women risk their own lives doing so and this loser won't pay the fine?

He did not heed the signs that say that this trail could be dangerous and that only experienced hikers should tread??? Typical Masshole!!! They just found the body of some clown from Japan that went hiking there and fell into a ravine, these ravines can be 100's of feet deep, I am surprised he was found at all, at least one or two deaths a year happen and these idiots do not listen to the rules of the mountain and I have no sympathy for them whatsoever and this clown need not return to NH! It is an awesome mountain if you follow the rules, there is much to see up on the summit, you can see clear into VT, and ME, the presidential range, the views are spectacular, you can see the observatory, they monitor weather from all over there and one night, they had a recorded wind speed of 232 mph and this is bigger than some of your bigger mountains!! It is very interesting and just majestic. Now the terrain is mostly scrub fir trees and these weird looking bushes and on the summit, there is nothing but dirt and rocks and because of the winds, all the buildings including an old hotel., that no longer is one, are tied down with heavy duty chains! The road is scary as hell going up there, they have areas where you can rest your brakes and water if you overheat and people should heed it, and if someone were to make a false move coming back down, it could be curtains because they only have large rocks to break your fall! There was still a car in one ravine!!! So this idiot here can just stay in his own state!!

[Marian Paroo]

Been reading about this on other boards too.


This happens here so often! Usually the idjits are religious guys with absolutely no hiking experience, who have decided to Get in Touch with "The Land of Israel."

Worse is in the winter, when the completely ignore flash flood warnings and go off to explore the desert wadis...