[at-l] Fw: Snow ends Scout camp -- North Carolina Boy Scouts were rescued from a camping trip on Mount Rogers

[wb4pan at mindspring.com (Chase Davidson)]

Well this shows another reason to follow LNT, National Forest and ATC 
guidelines of "NO more than 10 shall enter the Forest". Less people to 
die from there ignorance. I hope they will be ok.
chase

David Hicks wrote:
> The original of this was held because of the url.
> 
> Here is the text:
> 
> Snow ends Scout camp
> 
> 
> The group trudged ahead with its camping trip on Mount Rogers despite rangers' 
> warnings of deteriorating weather.
> 
> 
> By Lindsey Nair
>  981-3334
> The Roanoke Times
> 
> 
> A group of North Carolina Boy Scouts were rescued from a camping trip on Mount 
> Rogers this weekend after they were overwhelmed by below-freezing temperatures 
> and heavy snow.
> 
> Despite their motto, "Be prepared," several Scouts wore improper clothing and 
> had tennis shoes frozen to their feet when they were brought out of the woods 
> Sunday, rescuers said.
> 
> "They tried to build a fire, but they never could get one to go," said park 
> ranger Roy Kilby with Grayson Highlands State Park. "There was too much snow 
> and wind."
> 
> Of the 15 people taken to a hospital, two remained hospitalized Monday.
> 
> A spokesman at the Piedmont Council Boy Scout office in Gastonia, N.C., where 
> the Scouts were from, was out of the office Monday afternoon and could not be 
> reached.
> 
> Kilby was on duty Saturday when the group of about 30 people arrived. He said 
> most were Boy Scouts about 12 to 15 years old.
> The park already had about a half-foot of snow from Friday's storm, and Kilby 
> warned the Scout leaders that more snow was in the forecast. He said signs at 
> the park also warn visitors of drastic weather changes on Mount Rogers.
> 
> "They were told about the weather, that we were supposed to have more snow and 
> temperatures dropping," he said.
> 
> But the group appeared to have a lot of gear, he said, and decided to forge 
> ahead about 10 a.m.
> 
> Capt. Junior Reedy with the Rugby Rescue Squad said the troop hiked about two 
> and a half miles into the park and were on National Forest land when they set 
> up camp in the area known as Rhododendron Gap.
> 
> Meteorologist Jan Jackson with the National Weather Service in Blacksburg said 
> the temperature near Mount Rogers on Saturday night was 4 degrees and the wind 
> chill was minus 15 to minus 20. It snowed Saturday and Sunday
> .
> "People don't seem to understand that the temperature most of the time is 
> eight or 10 degrees colder back where they were at," Reedy said.
> By Sunday morning, some troop members were too cold to walk out. One 
> chaperone, a 60-year-old who had recently had a lung removed, was the most 
> ill-affected, Reedy said.
> 
> Those who could walk hiked out to find help. Reedy's  squad got the emergency 
> call about 10 a.m. Sunday and was joined by several other squads. Rescuers 
> took all-terrain vehicles into the park to find the Scouts, but the snow had 
> drifted so badly over the trails that they had a hard time following them.
> 
> When they reached the Scouts, medics loaded them onto the ATVs and drove them 
> to the park road, where an ambulance was waiting, Reedy said. They were then 
> taken to a triage area outside the park office.
> 
> "They got so cold back there they couldn't hardly get their shoes off them," 
> he said. Rescuers at the triage area had to cut frozen laces to get some of 
> the boys' feet out of their shoes.
> 
> "The ones I saw, they just had on these regular tennis shoes and things," 
> Reedy said.
> 
> He said some of the Scouts' clothes were wet, so they were stripped down and 
> wrapped in blankets to begin the warming process. By the time the last member 
> of the group was brought off the mountain, it was dark, Reedy said.
> 
> According to the Declaration of Independence, a weekly newspaper in Grayson 
> County, 15 people were taken to Ashe County Memorial Hospital in West 
> Jefferson, N.C. They included 11 Boy Scouts, one Scout leader and three 
> members of the Rugby Rescue Squad.
> 
> Six Scouts were admitted for treatment of frostbite and hypothermia, and four 
> of those were discharged Monday morning, the Independence newspaper said.
> John Wadsworth, director of field service for the Blue Ridge Mountain Council 
> in Northwest Roanoke, said winter camping is not an unusual Boy Scout 
> activity, but it requires preparedness and common sense.
> 
> "A lot of times you will find sort of a goal for a lot of troops is they like 
> to do one outdoor trip a month," he said. But "the kids are trained before 
> they're put in that kind of environment, and even then, there's got to be some 
> discretion."
> 
> Wadsworth said Scouts should be educated before any outing, including 
> cold-weather camping. And parents have the right to keep their son from going 
> on Boy Scout outings if they so choose.
> 
> Some Boy Scout outings are designed to teach Scouts wilderness survival 
> skills, but "there's not any badge that would challenge someone to go into 
> extreme cold," Wadsworth said.
> 
> Reedy and his squad have gotten used to rescuing hikers and campers from Mount 
> Rogers over the years, but he hopes people will refrain from camping during 
> the worst weather of the season.
> 
> "I hope they wait until spring."
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Hicks" <daveh@psknet.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 12:34 PM
> Subject: Snow ends Scout camp -- North Carolina Boy Scouts were rescued from a 
> camping trip on Mount Rogers
> 
> 
> Check out:
> 
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> 
> 
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