Another 'experienced' hiker. I guess if you can put one foot in front of another without falling over, you're an experienced hiker.

No appropriate clothing with rain forecast. Apparently no firemaking gear. Not enough sense to stop before dark. No enough sense to stop after it was dark.

Dumb as a couple of stumps.

Cynical Sue

I'm not quite as cynical as Sue but after reading that story, wow. Calling them stumps is an insult to stumps.

I'm sure that some of you have heard about how experience is counted, to some people having a years experience and simply repeating it allows them to claim "20 years of experience in X,Y, or Z..." in this case it sounds more like about one days worth of "experience" repeated over the course of 20 years.

How does an "experienced" hiker go to a hike without a light? Without a compass? Without apparently any freakin common sense?

The saddest part is that if these two brainiacs had died, I have no doubt that their obits would read something like this, " Mountain claims the lives of 2 experienced hikers..."

Unfreakinbelievable...the only bright side, it keeps the local SAR teams up on their training and provides job security for EMT's like me.

John E.

somewhere along the line we seem to have given up on self-reliabilty in favor of relying on others to save us from ourselves.

hopefully that's his wake-up call to start doing the things he should have been doing all along.

i wouldn't say he's experienced - i'd say he's been lucky.

Well, now they have the experience to say that they are experienced hikers. So far, as someone pointed out they have been lucky.

Until you have felt the sick feeling in your gut that now you are in trouble, you cannot claim to be experienced.

Another article here. Not much new information, unless you read through the comments section where one of the lost hikers in the article gives a bit more detail

Not sure what to think of this one. I have been hiking on that trailhead, but not the exact trail they were on though. Even starting at 9, their route to Sugarloaf peak is about 4 miles give or take, and the Peak is probably less than a mile from the road (straight line). And the while the weather changes fast,I don't understand the part about throwing stones in order to make your way down. Visibility would have to be absolutely zero to do something like that.

However, I did know a SAR friend who used to work that area, and out of all the areas in those mountiains, he specifically mentioned Ice House canyon was one of most common areas for rescue. Not the main Baldy trail that most people use. I think it's probably a combination of easy access for everyone and what looks like a easy dayhike, but with rapidly changing weather and extremely difficult terrain. If you stay on the trails it's not bad, but once you leave the trail and start going cross country you could be some serious trouble. I know I've tried it once, and it's not something I plan on repeating.

Were they experienced and just unlucky this one time? Or maybe they're inexperienced and just been lucky every other time? It's hard to say, because even the most experienced hiker runs out of luck at some point. After reading this article, it gave me the motivation to finally go out and buy the AMK HeatSheet Bivy. Really i just use this as an excuse, I was gonna buy it anyway.