Originally Posted By: Leigh_Ratcliffe

As others have noted, movement across country at night is a Bad Idea.

They were not in trouble yet, but if one of the party twists an ankle or knee then the group can no longer move together. It only takes one misstep and that's a large group. Moving in the dark risks turning a minor embarrassment into something with much reduced tactical possibilities.

This assumes it's true - "moonlit sky" sounds like an editor's embellishment.

Quote:

I disagree with the idea that the Leader going for help is poor leadership. Period. If you are leading the group and an incident occurs someone may have to go for help. It's your job to decide who, and how many.

OK, I should back off as not enough is known. It's the leadership vs. management issue again... I was thinking in terms that once you're out of sight down that road you're not leading that group until you return.

As a thought experiment: let's pretend they had a 406 MHz beacon. What's the point at which you activate it? My understanding was that "being lost" by itself isn't good enough, but nearly out of food or water would be. But in this case SAR resources were being deployed anyway. Knowing what they knew at the time what's the right time to have activated a PBL had they had one?