Lost Troop Found

[Engineer61]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/09/23/20100923arizona-boy-scouts-troops-lost-abrk.html

[Eagle92]

Eng,

Interesting article. I myself wonder at the expereince level of the leaders as I have a sad feeling that it is leaders with less than 3 years expereince since they said it involved varsity scout teams. Since most varsity scout teams are sports oriented and not field oriented, their leaders and scouts tend to have weaker outdoor skills from the limited contact I have had with a team, as well as from all the conversations I've had.

 

That said if your point is to provide negative actions in scouting, may I do the same for sports, since you have stated previousy that you coached and you would prefer your son to do that instead? I can provide links to the college that didn't follow guidelines and had a student die at tryouts. Or i can prove a link to the HS football player that died last year or the year before that died. Or I can provide some stats on injuries, including paralysis, and cheerleading.(This message has been edited by Eagle92)

[gcnphkr]

This is an annual thing here.

http://ontarget.mesavarsity.org/

About 100 teams take part. They climb different peaks in the state and see how many other peaks they can signal. Various prizes for distance, etc.

 

Generally this is just a day hike so they would have packed their water. We were very hot last weekend with temps still over 100F in that area. Easily could have run out of water thinking a couple of quarts each would be enough when they ready needed well over a gallon each. Common enough mistake even with hikers with moderate experience. Down side of water-packs they seem like a lot when they are only enough for a couple of hours.

[Beavah]

Most likely explanation is that a kid got sick and the unit stayed with the sick kid, working their way out slowly and then opting to signal for assistance. Not da best example of "be prepared" but not necessarily a sign of bad judgment.

 

Sports, on da other hand, cripple so many kids each year that it isn't even newsworthy.

 

Beavah

[Engineer61]

"That said if your point is to provide negative actions in scouting, may I do the same for sports, since you have stated previousy that you coached and you would prefer your son to do that instead?"

 

Gee, I actually didn't say anything.

 

Looks like they were out there 5 days.

 

 

 

 

(This message has been edited by Engineer61)

[SR540Beaver]

At the risk of sounding negative or biased.......was this Varsity Team LDS? In my area, the few Teams we have are LDS. I've also noted over the years where many of the stories we hear of scouts getting lost, hurt or killed are LDS troops. I've always attributed that to high turnover in adult leadership, leadership being assigned instead of volunteer and lack of training. Just curious.

[Engineer61]

Well there were 5 pages of teams on the list. Looks like both LDS and non-LDS participants.

[shortridge]

Looks like they were out there 5 days.

 

I am in awe at your incredible powers of discernment!

 

There's nothing in that story that even remotely comes close to hinting at suggesting the possibility of being lost for five days. Not even anything that says they were out overnight. In fact, the event's website which you apparently found (as you cited the list of teams involved) clearly states it's a one-day event, Sept. 18. If they'd been out longer, a search would already have started for them.

[Beavah]

Yah, I don't know where da 5 days comes from. This was a one-day event and they were out before dark. When they first contacted the park service through the HAM relay because of the sick boy, park service told 'em to sit tight and wait for the helicopter rather than continue the walkout.

 

Seems part of da problem was trail erosion and removal of trail signage in the area making the downclimb more of a problem than expected.

 

The helicopter evac seems like overkill, but it's much easier to extract someone from up on a mesa than down in a drainage somewhere, so I can see why NPS would prefer they wait rather than risk more complication.

 

Beavah

 

[Trevorum]

I never cease to be amazed that, while thousands of scout units are hiking around the outback each and every weekend throughout all 50 states, the media gleefully drills in on the one unit that has trouble.

 

[Gary_Miller]

It does not sound like they were lost, they had a GPS so know where they were, its more likely due to the sick boy and the possibility of running out of water they figured it would be better to get some help. They did the right thing they radioed for help, gave their coordinates and stayed put until help arrived.

 

Good for them in recognizing when they were in trouble and using their resources to get help.