Background: DW and I recently spent time day hiking in Southern Utah. At Bryce Canyon we hiked down a steep switchback with a drop of ~400'. We went around a corner and found a woman with an very swollen ankle. There was no chance of her hiking back up w/o help. I went back up the trail 100' until I was visible below a popular view point. Looking up I blew my whistle three (3) times asking for help. Using hand signals I let them know we needed help. The rangers were with the woman w/in 30 minutes to help her out.

Scenario: You're hiking and your partner becomes injured. It's not life-threatening so the PLB is out. The person is given water, food and shelter. You go to get help with your whistle. Do you whistle and keep moving? Do you constantly blow and keep moving? When and how should I use the whistle?

I understand each situation is different. Just curious...

What you did sounds good to me.

I personally would stay with the person, or look for help, until other help arrived. I'm never so much "on a mission" when I go hiking that I have to stay on course no matter what. I'm just not a serious hiker/camper. I'm just a weekend hobbyist out there casually exploring. It would take me awhile to get over it if I found out later that conditions changed and the injured person didn't make it.



Why is that. Please explain. How would you be able to know that?

Obviously it would depend on the circumstances, but that's pretty much my view, too. If it was a well marked trail and I knew with 99.5% certainty I could get to help and thought my companion would be okay til then, I'd go. But if we were lost in the first place I think it's safer to stay together. I might not be able to find my way back to him or her, plus there's the risk of there now being two lost people, lost in different locations. That would be twice the trouble for SAR.

If my companion was seriously hurt I'd be even more reluctant to leave, again, depending on the circumstances. Then again, maybe the only way your friend could survive would be to get evac'ed as fast as possible. Tough call.




You never know who might be in the area. I'd probably try my whistle to see if anyone was around to respond. I can see that signaling on the move might be bad, but on well traveled trails it might be worth trying.

I'd go with whistle and keep moving.

The main use I get out of my Fox 40 Micro on my keychain is getting people's attention on noisy construction sites. You can yell all day long at a guy driving a bulldozer and he isn't going to hear you.

But one good blast on the whistle will alert him to the fact he's about to back over your company van.

If you whistle for help in a mountainous, stay in one place...Advice from SAR long ago.

Years ago when I first got into mountaineering, I was involved in a situation where a person injured his back and was unable to descend from just over 6000 feet elevation. His G/F descended down on her own, blowing the whistle constantly which only served to echo off every rock and mountain slope and made for a difficult time for 2 other people on the mountain who had heard the whistle to find her.

Long story and very long day short, 2 other guys (who just descended from an 8000 feet summit) found the G/F and we met up with them by sheer coincidence. By this time we were at around 3500 feet and all five of us went back up the mountain where it was quickly determined that B/F was in no condition to walk out even with assistance. My friend and I stayed on the mountain with G/F and injured B/F while the other 2 guys went for help down to base which was about 900 feet.

SAR bundled the injured B/F and flew him, G/F and the man who lead SAR up the mountain, out by chopper while we once again headed down the mountain accompanied with 3 SAR. One of the SAR told us that unfortunately people who signal with help with whistles do not always stay in one place that causes hours of wasted searching and that because of that in a mountainous area, one day it may cost someone's life.

Postscript to this: It was not until later that night, I asked the man who came back up the mountain with SAR why he did and his friend did not. As he explained, he was worried that he may not of been able to exactly pinpoint our location on the map up on the mountain but could show SAR by hiking up with them. His friend did not accompany them as he was too physically tired and I can understand why. The man who lead SAR back up the mountain calculated that he ascended/descended approximently 17000 feet in one day. That is a remarkable feat by any measurement...and this man was 51 years old at the time.

I was taught to not abandon an injured person. Stay with them and use the whistle, or carry them out and use the whistle. Doing what you did, moving to a better location while staying in close proximity to them was probably the best thing to do.

If it were just me with a victim, I'd only leave them if I were completely sure their condition was not life-threatening and I knew I could make it to help quickly. Otherwise, I'd stay with them and toot the whistle in bursts of 3 every few minutes... a prepared person could afford to stay put for a couple days, and help ought to be eminent if they left an itinerary with someone back home.

I know in my wilderness first aid class, we were told to round up whoever was available and assign them to provide first aid, give orders, find help, etc. based on who has what skills. Having 3 people to a group makes the scenarios easier; even doing something as simple as giving first aid can get tough if it's just a victim and one caregiver.