Tragedy in the White Mountains

A terrible thing happened Thursday (April 8) up in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. About 2:30 p.m., while Shu Qin, a 28-year-old woman visiting from Shanghai was hiking the Falling Waters Trail, a boulder split from a ledge and fell on her. Two hours later she was placed in an ambulance and taken to Littleton Regional Hospital, about 20 miles away, where she was pronounced dead. About three hours had elapsed between the time of the accident and the time she was pronounced dead.

But...and I'm writing this with the greatest trepidation because it seems a wonderful human being 's life was snuffed out, and her family is hurting terribly and unless you spend a lot of time in the wilderness this is going to sound so cold but it really is the truth: these things happen in the wilderness, and now her brother-in-law is wondering if her death could have been avoided, or if more could have been done to attempt to save her life.

In a Boston Globe article it says he laments poor cell phone reception. He suggested a land line at the head of the trail could have expedited alerting authorities. And that the NH Fish and Game could have done more to warn hikers of the dangers of the trial.

The article quotes him saying she sat on the trail for two hours begging to be saved.

Omigod...where to start?

It's the wilderness, there is no cell phone reception there, installing and maintaining land line telephones at the heads of every trail up there is simply not practical, and do you really need authorities to warn you of the dangers of climbing a mountain?

You hike into a place like the White Mountains, and you're responsible for your own safety and well-being. It's not Disneyland. The bears do bite and the moose will lower their heads and charge. The rocks are not made out of papier-mâché and will crush you. It is a rugged, dangerous place where the weather changes rapidly and you can find yourself in danger in a matter of seconds--yes, seconds--and people go there all the time thinking it's a park. It's not. It's foolish to think that. Just to east of where Qin died mountaineers train in the winter for Mt. Everest. And to expect authorities to save you when you get in trouble in a place like that is frankly shirking your own responsibilities.

I would love to know what kind of first aid training this group of hikers had, and what medical supplies they were carrying with them. Or even what kind of general gear they were carrying.

And why did Qin sit on the trail waiting for help when help was right there in the form of her fellow hikers? In a situation like that you do quick first aid and then get the victim out of there. You fashion a stretcher out of poles and a tarp or your rain gear. Or you carry her out fireman style. Sorry, (and I could be way out of line here because I'm just going by the Globe report) if anyone is to blame, it's appears that it's her fellow hikers for being ill-equipped and not carrying out proper procedures.

There are people, and I'm one of them, who like the fact that there is still real wilderness where we can go and we're on our own. I like that feeling of independence and responsibility, something that I think the middle-class suburban world has long ago discarded. I don't know how many times I've been out in the outdoors and came across someone who needed help. And I had to choose between using the medical supplies I had for myself (and risking not having them later if I needed them) and helping an ill-prepared fellow human. And I've always helped them out, but it's an awfully entitled, selfish approach to your fellow hikers to expect them to put themselves at risk for you.

I must reiterate that I feel so bad for Qin's death. But please don't tame the wilderness because you can't handle it. Because frankly, you can't tame it anyway. It's better to learn it, and learn how to survive in it.