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> There are many times me going ahead a bit to scout the trail and judge the impact of recent weather I'm curious what you need to judge in advance that's wort
by bjtitus 4y ago
> There are many times me going ahead a bit to scout the trail and judge the impact of recent weather
I'm curious what you need to judge in advance that's worth getting beyond line-of-site of "newcomers"? I suppose if you're preparing routes which take time this makes sense but I'm struggling to think of examples.
Things change awfully quick and it's a nightmare when you lose a group member and have a vast and potentially densely foliaged area to search with rescue teams many hours from responding.
As long as everyone's aware of the situation and properly prepared then it's certainly their choice to make.
- bbarn 4y agoThe mountains I climb nearby can have the trails erased or dramatically altered by rainfall. The marked route can become dangerous when going slightly off trail can be entirely safe. We also don't have "foliage" in Iceland :)
- bjtitus 4y agoWouldn't it make sense to take the group along and have everyone turn around when it is impassable? Is the scouting because the group is physically incapable of going the extra distance when route finding is needed? From my limited experience with Iceland's terrain I think I'd be worried about "newcomers" behind me losing the trail so I think I'd be even more wary but perhaps it depends on the group, equipment, etc. While there isn't much dense foliage out here in the Rocky Mountains I've seen many people get separated even in alpine terrain. Especially in boulder fields where groups routinely get separated and I've seen several called for rescue independently after searching for hours.