Gorge hiker found

Nice to see a good outcome for once. This is a relative of a friend and they were pretty worried. Last name is actually Fridell, not Fidell. He ran into snow up top and decided to hunker down for the night and is hiking out now.

Good to hear. It doesn't bode well with my wife when people don't come back from their hikes and I want to go somewhere new. Nice to have a positive outcome.

Glad they found him, but. . . I wonder if he wanted to stay out the night? I heard,(can't verify right now), that he took his sleeping bag with him. . I wouldn't take a sleeping bag with me, especially if setting off late in the day, on a simple dayhike. Unless, of course, he was training, wanted the extra weight(mazama!), and therefore was carrying the bag, along with everything else.
Glad it was a happy outcome though.

Lessons... just so you know.

In early May, 2008, I climbed Dog Mtn and looked across the river at Mt Defiance.
I could see the snow and it seemed like an inviting Mtn to try. Unfortunatelly,
that day it was rainy, and I thought to go deeper into the Gorge, hoping for
less rain... Mt. Defiance - a 4,000 ft climb seemed worth a try. I'll just
turn back if things got bad.






I prob got within 400 feet of the top... but decided to turn back while
there was daylight. (This picture is prob about 800 ft below summit)






Unfortunatelly, the majority of the tracks led me down the wrong direction.
The ridge at the top was quite broad and poorly defined. In the fog
one could not really make out the correct direction because the ridge
was "cone shaped". I could have easily went, west, south or east on this
terrain.

















Once Keith, from the Hood River Craigrats reached me, he informed
all searchers via radio that I had been found... and everyone headed home.
Te showed me the easy way out. Apparently the call for volunteers went
out and they had people at the trailhead, coordinating the search
to start the next morning. They had volunteer searchers on most
of the trails, looking for me. Since I was not near a trail,
there's no way they would of located me that day if the airplane
hadn't spotted me.

Once back at the trailhead... the sheriff and all the other searchers had
already skedaddled home... leaving just me and my much appreciated
searcher go go home on our own time. They don't charge for their
volunteer work, but they would like donations so they can buy
devices for their searches.



I carried a sleeping bag, ground mat, space blanket - as a PACK STUFFER. The combined weight was only 4 lbs and not a impedence. Otherwise my back would be an empty baggy thing.

And in response to Dskoon... NO WAY, was I planning to spend the night, nor was I anywhere near counting on getting lost or taking chances. In fact, I cussed to myself all night over this.

While I do have extensive off-trail experience and fully know how to use a topo map. In my case, the lack of sun, fog, trees - all severely limited my chance to use a topo map.

Remember - if you are CLIMBING... you know where you will end up - AT THE TOP.
It's like a cone-shaped mountain... go up... you end up at the top and know where you are. But go down - you come out ANYWHERE at the base. Lots of climbers have made this mistake.

Also... the Craigrats make about 30 searches every year... most which never make the news. The most common searches are for DAYHIKERS and HUNTERS.

And back to the story... this lost hiker probably hiked in foggy conditions or dense forest.
Lack of sun can impair one's sense of direction.

I still hike solo, but now I always carry a GPS.

I hope somebody learned something about my experience.

Hi Billisfree, glad all was ok. I have a small Defiance story too.

I went up Defiance alone, ran into snow, kept going, then met 3 people. We tagged the summit and they convinced me to go down the other way despite the snow and lack of tracks. We went down, lost the trail, then 2 of those people separated from me and the other guy, bashing straight down a gully, while we stayed on a ridge. We asked them to rejoin us (shouting down to them, they are about 100 feet lower), and they refused. Okay.

Following the ridge, me and the other guy eventually found trail and were out at dark. These other guys spent the night above a waterfall and then made it down in the morning. It rained all night, could have been dangerous.

Those two are not the first, nor the last to try to follow the creek down.

I'm told lots of hikers make this mistake - hence, part of my problem - trusting the tracks of previous hikers.

billisfree wrote:While I do have extensive off-trail experience and fully know how to use a topo map. In my case, the lack of sun, fog, trees - all severely limited my chance to use a topo map.

Remember - if you are CLIMBING... you know where you will end up - AT THE TOP.
It's like a cone-shaped mountain... go up... you end up at the top and know where you are. But go down - you come out ANYWHERE at the base. Lots of climbers have made this mistake.
<snip>
I still hike solo, but now I always carry a GPS.

I hope somebody learned something about my experience.

What have you done (besides carry failure-prone technology) to improve your navigation skills? Fog is no excuse for not using your map, as a compass and altimeter will still allow you to narrow it down to just a few possibilities based on aspect/steepness/elevation and even then, if you had used a compass from the start you could have known which gully you were in.

It seems to me like you did everything you could to avoid knowing where you were on the mountain. This is actually a fairly common reaction to becoming lost, according to a book I read recently about wilderness survival. To avoid feeling lost, you start following trails or tracks which may lead you astray, getting you more lost, but you hold out, thinking the trail must lead to salvation. I am glad you had the sense to hunker down for the night before you walked into a worse situation.

Did you have a compass? Do you really know how to use it?

nhluhr wrote:
Did you have a compass? Do you really know how to use it?

To get much use from a compass when views are obstructed, you really have to know where you are when you start taking bearings. Then you need a modestly accurate measure of distance traversed. In steep terrain, where multiple branches form quickly from one initial starting gully and the route is obstructed by forest tangle and rocky drops, one loses a sense of distance.

Years ago, I used a $400 sighting compass for geologic mapping, as part of my job. It had a leveling bubble, and it was quite interesting to estimate the error that could ensue from simply tilting the compass a little. When the country was shrouded in rain or fog, and I couldn't get bearings on distant objects, I simply didn't map.

In the Adirondacks (off trail) I've know where I was within 1/4-mile radius, and had good absolute compass measurements, yet was still lost. The small-scale variations of the terrain, dense forest and blow-down, made it very hard to follow a bearing for more than 100', and made it near impossible to find the correct exit stream.

In the west, even when I've found a "good" wash according to the map, a 40' cliff band that doesn't show up on topo maps may drastically change plans and delay by a few hours.

In parts of the northwest, the temporal variation of declination, since the maps were made, is enough to throw off a lot of orienteering by compass.

As for the error-prone nature of GPS, I think that depends a lot on what the user has between the ears. I've used GPS for 8 years, and have never had an "error" that was baffling, since I always track the satellite stats. I keep getting the claim that I will be out-of-luck if the batteries run out; then I point out that I always carry spare batteries and always have a backup compass. And yes, I know how to use it, probably better than 99% of the people who ask, "do you really know how to use a compass?"

I agree a bit with Nhulhr's post. . . A Gps isn't going to always save your ass; one should be able to do that without a gps.
I'm not going to speculate on what the "lost" gorge hiker did/didn't have or do, etc. Sounds from the article that he was prepared, and was a bit surprised that people were looking for him. Hence my last post on maybe he wanted to stay out. Glad that it all turned out ok.

I've been up Defiance a couple of times. The last time, starting out late. I know people get lost up there, usually, as Bill mentioned, coming off the top. Still, I did take a full daypack, as I knew there would be snow up high and wanted the extra clothing, jacket, etc.(glad I had them), but I didn't pack a sleeping bag or bivy gear, as I had no intention on spending the night up there. (At present, I forget the name of the famous climber, ahh, Chouinard, I think, who said, if you take bivy gear than you'll probably end up using it).
So, given my late start on the last trip up there, lots of fresh postholing snow up high, and the late hour I ate my lunch on that last ridge, I turned around and headed down, rather than trying to push through to the summit. I did the calculations and knew going for it would push the time, hour of the day, and my energy level. Turned around, and slept nice and warm back in Pdx.

dskoon wrote: A Gps isn't going to always save your ass; one should be able to do that without a gps.

Agreed; nothing will always save your ass. But I don't recall anyone claiming that a gps was a panacea.

MoapaPk wrote:

dskoon wrote: A Gps isn't going to always save your ass; one should be able to do that without a gps.

Agreed; nothing will always save your ass. But I don't recall anyone claiming that a gps was a panacea.

Right, just seems to be mentioned a lot, ie. "He was carrying a gps," "now I always carry a gps," etc. etc.

I should clarify: I have no problem whatsoever with using GPS, so long as you can justify the weight.

I frequently carry one when I feel like I might encounter whiteout conditions or otherwise poor navigational situations because, flat out, it is EASIER. But I also try to practice with a map and compass frequently. It feels good to travel for an hour in a whiteout and end up exactly where you intended because you have been using your compass correctly.

dskoon wrote:Right, just seems to be mentioned a lot, ie. "He was carrying a gps," "now I always carry a gps," etc. etc.

Or in the cases on Hood in the last 3 years, "he wasn't carrying a gps." Not that it would have made a difference either way.

In response to the nhmulr vs moapapk debate:

Yes, I DID have a compass, and I DO know how to use it. But... the tiny compass was buried in my pack and I couldn't find it at the time. I highly doubt if it would make much difference getting out - unless I took careful recordings on my way up.

And I DID have a alitude meter. Last I looked at it, I was at approx 2300 feet... then it got too dark to read it. I incorrectly gave the sheriff my altitude at 2200 feet. When it got light in the morning, I noted by altitude as 1800 ft. By then my phone had quite and I could not update the searchers.

Secondly, mhmulr has a fine point there... a compass is not much value if the trail makes a few directional changes. Distance is hard to measure, especially on steep terrain, strewn with windfalls.

I was pretty concerned about making SAFE progress down some hazarous terrain. Don't trip - or get hurt to the point I would incapitate myself!

Again, a topo map is worthless in my situation.

One just has to contend with multiple clues, compass, sun, terrain, streambeds, etc.
Even on the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge there are frequenct blind spots where a GPS goes blank.

There's always a few macho guys... claiming they can do it right. Just let them get truely lost just once! Then they change their minds.

Basic rule - if you have any navigational aid - TAKE IT ALONG!