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 Utah's canyon trekking,deck chair packing desert explorer who dreams of visiting Canada someday
3988 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2006 : 10:12 PM
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Ever head back down a trail and meet others coming up loaded with questions?
1. So, is there anything worthwhile to see up there?
2. How far is it, REALLY....the sign said..
3. Does it level off, soon?
4. What are the ski poles for? ya goin' skiing?
5. what kind of camera do you got there? is it digital?
(now you have to scroll through all your pictures for a mini slide show as they all huddle and shield the screen)
6. Are there any snakes up here?
I love it! It really is kinda fun and no harm when this happens?
I'm guilty of it, too....
anyone ever get any unusual questions from people heading to where you've just been?
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May your trails be crooked, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing views ! Edward Abbey |
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White rock, BC
Canada
206 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2006 : 10:18 PM
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| some one asked if they could borrow my tent with the promise that they would mail it back to me. Needless to say i never lent it to them. |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
2659 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2006 : 10:32 PM
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Great topic!
"Is this the way back to the parking lot?" is a favourite of mine 
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Cotton doesn't kill people...guns do! |
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ass wigglin, cheese lovin, 4x4 drivin, apostrophe hatin, hiking chick who loves camping on snow
spaceship..
Canada
7209 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2006 : 10:59 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by hike_in_van
Great topic!
"Is this the way back to the parking lot?" is a favourite of mine
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Cotton doesn't kill people...guns do!
Oh my... you could have a lot of fun with that one |
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Night owl posting,Subie driving, backpacking Dad who is perpetually trying to catch up to his kids on the trail.
Vancouver, BC
Canada
3054 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 01:20 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Shadee
quote:
Originally posted by hike_in_van
Great topic!
"Is this the way back to the parking lot?" is a favourite of mine
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Cotton doesn't kill people...guns do!
Oh my... you could have a lot of fun with that one
Very much reminds me of a couple of guys we ran into on our way back from the Elfin Lakes shelter last Remembrance Day. We were heading out from the shelter and encounter these guys who tell us how bad conditions are ahead of us and how nobody made it through the night before. We informed them that, actually, we made it through and now we were heading for home. They were more than a little shocked.
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"Aging ... it beats the alternative" |
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 | Dru
Mountain Grammar Police
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Sardonic sandbagging scoundrel, Cascade Climbers lobotomized spraymeister, space blanket flyer, new millennium vulgarian betaboy and friend to all squids
Climbing, a mountain
Canada
∞ Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 06:00 AM
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When I am coming down from a summit like Ha Ling or Temple I like to tell the people on the way up that they'd better hurry because the ice cream stand closes in 15 minutes. I don't think there are many summits in the Coast Mts you could get away with that except around Whistler.
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no matter. try again. fail again. fail better. |
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Maple syrup lovin', tree huggin', face paintin' relocated Québécoise who is VERY serious about having fun
Vancouver
Canada
2637 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 07:03 AM
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A good one:
"What's your phone number?"  |
Edited by - SnowSeeker on 04/19/2006 07:32 AM |
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| Dru
Mountain Grammar Police
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Sardonic sandbagging scoundrel, Cascade Climbers lobotomized spraymeister, space blanket flyer, new millennium vulgarian betaboy and friend to all squids
Climbing, a mountain
Canada
∞ Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 07:48 AM
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"Do you need a rescue?"
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no matter. try again. fail again. fail better. |
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 Big pack hiker who sleeps with bears in tent and falls on slippery logs
Langley, BC
Canada
7647 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 08:04 AM
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Oh great topic!!!! I have heard alot of funny ones over the years. Most of them I just shake my head...
How much further to the (viewpoint/campsite/top/creek/waterfall/sub in anything else)?
What time does it get dark? (picture this question was a person by themselves, no gear, sneakers, jogging pants, about 15min before it gets dark. I was already 1/2 way back and was carrying a headlamp. They continued on!).
Is there water ahead? (again, a person with no gear)
or better... "Do you have any extra water?" (person with barely anything again)
What time is it? (I'm surprised people wouldn't wear a watch when hiking. Yes, you could say well you want to get away from it all. But if that's the case, why ask me what the heck time it is???)
Oh yes.. That whole ski pole thing. I doesn't really happen anymore, but it happened alot several yrs ago. You going skiing? Rented Mule, I'm with you on that one. Man, that was annoying.
Am I going the right way for (sub in whatever)? I find this one really amusing. You've obviously selected the trail and drove to the TH. And you don't know that you're on the right trail??
Can you take a picture of my friend and I?
Were you camping? (hmmm, let me see. I carry a really full pack, just for the hell of it.) LOL
What country are you from? (this one was kinda stupid, but I forgave them as they were a couple gorgeous swedish women on vacation)
Snowseeker - I know what you mean about the phone number. yeesh. Happens all the time!
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Slo mo sno shuin' Great Wall trekkin' triathalon doin' pale ale drinkin' all Patrick, all the time, smoothie
2497 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 08:05 AM
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| "Did you see any bears?" |
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Vancouver, B.C.
461 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 08:12 AM
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| On the Lions trail I was asked by a man coming up if I had any extra food I could spare. He had no pack, and no water. |
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Outward Bound author of the Seinfeld Thread, who builds his own snowshoes
Troy, MT
USA
3122 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 08:20 AM
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did you se any bears?
how far to the ________?
what way do we go?
what mountain is that?
I'll admit, I've asked if this is the right way back to the parking lot, but I'd taken a shortcut and really didnt know where I was |
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Fungi Filmin', Wine Drinkin', 'Shroom Eatin', Early Risin', Deer Whisperin', Curry Cookin', Macro Maniac
Chilliwack + Osoyoos
3618 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 08:42 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by SnowSeeker
A good one: "What's your phone number?"
When I ask that... some times I get my face slapped  ... then other times, I get her number ... but mostly, I get her number without even asking !!! 
C'Jack...
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...hang on, I'm coming... |
Edited by - OK Jack on 04/19/2006 08:46 AM |
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Victoria, BC
Canada
63 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 12:18 PM
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| Had a good one once - passed one guy suffering up a hill, then a group of 3 more about 1.5 km down asking if I'd seen another guy back a ways... Went out, and on my way back I pass the first group again setting up camp, asked if the guy in the back ever caugh up - he hadn't - only after they'd waited for 45 mins or something did they walk back to find out he'd messed his ankle. He was camping a km back from the first group by himself. Yeesh. |
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Coffee swillin', wine lovin', Owl fearin' Andie McDowell stunt double, who sports retro gear
Vancouver, BC
5465 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 1:31 PM
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On the way down from the Chief on a hot day, near the top:
Girl wearing flimsy shoes and carrying a purse: "Do they sell water up there?"
Me: "No. I think you'd better take mine." |
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double-double seeking, snow-chasing, short-cutting, vertical feet collector
4523 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 2:08 PM
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not as amusing as the stories above, and fortunately this never made the news.
This happened in late January this year.
We wanted to do a night photo shoot up on Seymour - the skies were suitably cloudy, the night skiers would add a lovely backdrop to coloured flood lights.
We are near the split in the trail where the Park trails finally leaves the floodlit ski runs, and we are ready to drop down into the little valley before heading up to Brockton Point. Up until now, we never encountered anyone else on the trail. It's a little before 8pm - we are in a photo groove and I am looking around for more subjects to shoot.
Up ahead I see a man walking tentatively on the trail. He's wearing red pants, a big open ski jacket and running shoes (with laces undone). "Oh, a dad that got bored waiting in the chalet while his kids are snowboarding" I think.
He joins us. He's asking about my lens, spends time with my friend asking about his camera, the photos he's taking, the exposure time he's using... He asks me about where this trail is leading - I say that it's a 7km trail to the top of Seymour. He asks us whether we are going up there. "No, not tonight". He's asking so many questions. Grrr, I don't want this guy hanging on to us all evening.
Behind us I see the headlamps of another couple coming along the trail. I step off the trail to shoot a vista near Suicide Bluffs and my friend joins me. I see the man talking to the other couple now - and soon all three are gone.
We take pictures for another hour, making our way to Brockton, watching the patterns of fog and light shifting in a breezy sky. We hear snowmobiles buzzing the distant ski hills, then think of returning back to the car. Although it's half past nine, the ski lifts are closed already. We lazily make our way down the Parks trail.
We reach the split in the trail leading to First Lake when we are suddenly joined by a Seymour Ski Patrol guy -
'Hi guys, did you see an older man on the trail tonight? Red pants, ski jacket...'
"Not in a long time... why do you ask?"
'His family says that he's 2.5 hours overdue, and he's lost somewhere on this mountain'
We describe where we last saw him, the ski patrol guy says the other couple saw him more recently than we did.
'We are searching this lower part of the trail - we know he's somewhere around here' he says before disappearing on the trail to First Lake.
We continue walking down, chastened by what happened. I think 'Goodness, I wanted to shake this guy - when in fact he was lost'. I feel massively guilty all of a sudden.
As the trail turns to the right, near the final hill to the trailhead, we see a form lying on the side of the trail. We are not even 100m from the trailhead. It's the man that everyone is looking for. Feet tucked under, arms folded around his chest, head tucked in, he's sleeping on the side of the trail. No colour on his face, hands a ghostly green.
The ski patrol guy crouches near him, touches his neck, his hands. He talks into his walkie-talkie, orders a skidoo with blankets. Then quickly changes his order to a sled attached to the skidoo.
We are walking on the skirun as the skidoo zooms up the side trail. There are few cars left in the parking lot. A Mt Seymour truck pulls up to the trailhead - the driver asks us 'did you see anyone on the trail tonight?' "He's found, he's alive" I say.
'Jeeze, people should not venture into the backcountry unprepared' he says 'people should be better educated about things like this'.
The lights in the first aid cabin are on, a few employees gather outside, waiting for the skidoo to return. As we put away our snowshoes and our gear, I see it zoom by, with the found man - wrapped in blankets - sitting up in the back of the skidoo.
And as we drive down to North Vancouver, and check out at the gates of Mt Seymour (funny how they check each car leaving the area after closing time) we see an ambulance truck waiting to go up.
That was a close call for that man. I am surprised that a search was initiated only a few hours after he went missing. Mind you, it was a stormy night, rain and snow were coming and going every few minutes (with a few minutes of clear sky in between). Lucky for him, too, to lie down on the main trail and not on some side trail up to Dinky Peak. It was a very close call for him to be found.
And I remembered once again that one does not have to go very far to get into a lot of trouble.
Next time someone obviously not dressed for the outdoors asks me which way up the mountain, I'll guide them gently back to the parking lot. |
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| Dru
Mountain Grammar Police
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Sardonic sandbagging scoundrel, Cascade Climbers lobotomized spraymeister, space blanket flyer, new millennium vulgarian betaboy and friend to all squids
Climbing, a mountain
Canada
∞ Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 2:15 PM
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lots of suicides like to wander off into the mountains in order to try and die of exposure.
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no matter. try again. fail again. fail better. |
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double-double seeking, snow-chasing, short-cutting, vertical feet collector
4523 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 2:25 PM
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he was confused and already a bit incoherent when we first met him - I think it was hypothermia setting in: the open jacket, the open shoes - despite how bloody cold it was that night
good thing his family called, and good thing a team was deployed to find and rescue the guy. what a close call though, another quarter-hour sleeping on the side of that trail and he would have been history |
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ass wigglin, cheese lovin, 4x4 drivin, apostrophe hatin, hiking chick who loves camping on snow
spaceship..
Canada
7209 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 2:29 PM
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| That's a big reality check. |
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Bowen Island, BC
Canada
614 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 2:31 PM
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| C-wall, that is a moving and well-told story. I'm glad the rescue was in time. |
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925 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 5:00 PM
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| The funniest one I had was on a hike up to Rawson Lake in Kananaskis. A woman in running shoes, no water, a purse slung over her shoulder with about 60 extra pounds she needed to lose was on the trail ahead of me. We had not yet begun the climb. As we passed, she asked me if I thought the store at the top would be open by the time she got there. I told her there was no store, and that she shouldn't go up without food, water or a jacket. She gave me a snarky look and told me quite pointedly that she was asking because she wanted to buy some water and figured there had to be a store or something somewhere on this trail. I told her she had no business being on the trail without proper footwear, clothing, food or water - the purse just wasn't going to cut it. |
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They're coming up/ you're going back down
