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I think we saw them in the parking lot at Noon. We tried to warm them about them about the coming storm. We told them it took us 7 hrs to go up and down. We gave them hand warmers. Any suggestions on what else we could/should have done?

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alpinenut wrote: ↑Sun Nov 08, 2020 10:00 am https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... oser=false

I think we saw them in the parking lot at Noon. We tried to warm them about them about the coming storm. We told them it took us 7 hrs to go up and down. We gave them hand warmers. Any suggestions on what else we could/should have done?

That's about all that you could have done.

Things always go from bad to worse.

"One subject had lost a shoe and had to descend deep snowy trail in 20° weather for several hours without it."

Happy endings are the best!

I struggle to not judge when people head out under forecasts like this weekend’s. Glad they’re safe and picked a ‘safeish’ peak to try storm-hiking on, but unless you’re intentionally training for whiteout navigation in anticipation of an attempt on an unclimbed alpine route on a Karakoram 6000er, perhaps one should stay out of the backcountry when the storms come in.

I remember a similar incident on Quandary’s east ridge a few years ago. A totally avoidable S&R response for someone who wanted to try out their grit in winter storm conditions.

Glad this had a more positive ending than what I was fearing reading the subject line.

Alpinenut, so they were starting out at noon from the TH?

Like Scott said, that's about all you can do. This brings up the oft-talked about point of what do you say to people when you feel in your gut a better decision could be had. I've run into folks more than once doing something where I bit my tongue. Usually its some variant of the same thing, not being prepared one way or another.
No, it's not my business, best I've found was to casually make such folks aware of the risks of the situation and gauge their feedback; If they are genuinely, innocently naïve maybe that helps them make a more informed decision and they change their mind. In some cases, as I'm sure many here have experienced, people get belligerent and defensive.

alpinenut wrote: ↑Sun Nov 08, 2020 10:00 am https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... oser=false

I think we saw them in the parking lot at Noon. We tried to warm them about them about the coming storm. We told them it took us 7 hrs to go up and down. We gave them hand warmers. Any suggestions on what else we could/should have done?

Give them a better judgement transplant?

Too bad SAR had to spend all that time and effort saving people from bad decisions. I'm glad nobody was injured.

Reading editions of "Accidents in North American Mountaineering" should be required reading for anyone climbing mountains

alpinenut wrote: ↑Sun Nov 08, 2020 10:00 am https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... oser=false

I think we saw them in the parking lot at Noon. We tried to warm them about them about the coming storm. We told them it took us 7 hrs to go up and down. We gave them hand warmers. Any suggestions on what else we could/should have done?

As others have alluded to, I’d say you did all that could reasonably be expected of you in the situation.

It’s been my experience that totally losing your cool and yelling every synonym for the word “idiot” that you can come up with on the spur of the moment at someone makes you a raging jackass AND is of no use in preventing their planned actions (...granted, my sample size for that particular spontaneous experiment consisted solely of my now-ex-boyfriend...), and physically restraining them is even worse on multiple levels, so unless they’re in obvious and immediate danger (like, perhaps, from a rock plunging toward them that they can’t see/react to quickly enough), there’s usually not much you can do for someone besides giving them your honest assessment, letting them make their own mistakes, and hopefully living long enough to learn from them.

We don’t know for sure if it was the same people, but yes we did talk to a group of two 20ish yr old boys leaving the trailhead about noon. They did mention it was their first 14er attempt.