A story of a lost hiker is nothing new in the NPS Morning Report. What’s interesting about this one in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area is that the lost hikers were in cell phone contact with rangers, and they didn’t bother following the searchers’ instructions.

Personnel searched for approximately six hours without luck. The rain did not turn to snow, and plans were made to continue the search at first light the next day. Additional personnel were called in and the search resumed early on Saturday morning. Further phone contact helped them to finally locate the trio in mid-afternoon. Search efforts were hampered by the men continuing to move after being told to stay in one position so that searchers could find them. Tommy Barnes was IC. There were no injuries to either hikers or searchers.

Unless they moved only a little bit to find better shelter from the rain and snow, these guys were thinking too much about how to make it easier for their searchers. Once you get on the phone with the rangers and they tell you they’re on the way and you need to stay put, don’t decide to go looking for mushrooms.

Swift Silent Deep is the historical documentary of the Jackson Hole Air Force. In their heyday, the infamous ski fraternity chased powder lines beyond the resort boundaries that would lead to an eventual standoff with the ski patrol and resort powers. It also led to Jackson’s eventual open-door backcountry gate policy.

via Gear Junkie

The Culture Vulture at the Salt Lake Tribune ponders the $23 field trip his child took at school. Grade schoolers are treated to a bus ride from the classroom to the resort, where they stand through some quick lessons before they start drifting sideways down the hill. It’s a genius move on Ski Utah’s part in looking to foster the next generation of Utah skiers. To be honest, besides running a needlessly complex Gold Pass program and making some commercials, I wasn’t sure what Ski Utah did. Indoctrinating our youth with a love for skiing is by far the most valuable aspect of the organization. Now if we could only find some kind of brainwashing machine to run while they ride the bus. Or…how’s this for creative…we run a 45 minute ad for Backcountry.com during the bus ride?

Thirty-nine rescuers spent six hours combing Marin County’s Mount Tamalpais looking for a single hiker who’d gone missing at about 1:30. Eventually the hiker had the bright idea that he might head downhill where he ran into surface streets, street lights, and cell phone reception. He called a car service for a ride home and then the police to let them know he’d found his way out.

St. John suggested that folks bring a map and a flashlight — since, sadly, locator beacons (”Yuppie 911″ to bemused mountaineers) would probably end up triggering more vain rescue attempts, and not fewer.

Other options include telling people to stay on the trails, and to go back the way they came.

This series of videos that seeks to document the human footprint on Yosemite helped Steven M. Bumgardner land a job as a videographer for the National Park Service.

I chose busy places during busy days to show the effects of this mass of humanity. I could have just as easily pointed my camera in another direction and shown nothing but plants, animals and wilderness. Yosemite is popular, but it’s also still a relatively wild place.

via Backpacker

Pending legislation in Oregon would have every climber attempting a Mt. Hood ascent carrying a rescue beacon that could be rented for about $5. The beacons are basically line-of-sight locators. You don’t flip one on and sit back and wait for a helicopter. Someone needs to know you’re missing, and then they can use the locator beacon to find your signal once they get close enough. These beacons likely wouldn’t have saved the three climbers who died in the recent tragedy on Mt. Hood as the conditions were too treacherous for rescue.

Both sides are weighing in with strong opinions and surprisingly logical arguments. The basic points of the governmental side are that they pay for rescue, so they want to mandate the usage since it helps them concentrate their search in one area and spend less money. Climbers argue that it robs from the freedom and mystique of mountaineering, plus it might make inexperienced hikers take risks they normally wouldn’t since they have this beacon fallback plan.

Ideally they would just loan the beacons for free and everyone would use them. Actually, it would be even more ideal if only people who were going to get lost would rent them. Problem solved.

A 23-year-old British climber spent six hours clinging with only his fingers on a cliff waiting for rescue. He and his partner somehow became stuck 300 feet up a cliff face, and the lead climber said he could not go up or down climb. The guy on belay was wrapped in a warm jacket and pretty cozy, but the lead climber was plucked off the cliff by a team that lowered down 300ft off the top. It sounds like he got too far in front of his last piece of protection to safely fall, so he just sat there holding on for six hours until someone could come get them. This scenario is baffling on many levels, but I can’t come up with anything that better explains their situation (and The Scotsman doesn’t seem to worry about it). That must have been a tense conversation between the belay station and the climber. “No dude. Just keep hanging onto the wall. It can’t take longer than another ten minutes for them to get here

A young girl was found face down in the snow and not breathing at Alta Ski Area yesterday afternoon. Ski patrol revived the girl and sent her off to a hospital in Salt Lake. They’re not sure exactly how it happened, but they know she fell 30 to 40 feet off of the Sunnyside Chair and landed in soft snow. My guess? Some powder lover pushed her off the chair so they wouldn’t have to push her off the traverse.

Skiing legend Lou Dawson posted a primer on how to survive an unexpected night in the wintery backcountry. Not a bad idea to brush up as we approach the height of the ski season. Several groups have gotten lost or caught in bad storms on the mountainside or in the backcountry lately, so Lou put together this little lesson. The basics: Build a snow cave, or just crawl into an existing cave after making sure there aren’t any bears in it.