Group Leaves Injured Hiker Behind

[Flip357]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/19/us/arizona-grand-canyon-hiking-injury-rescue/index.html

According to the article the group of 5 other hikers resumed their hike after satellite communication was established.

I'm under the impression that if one hiker is injured/sick to the point of emergency evacuation, the trip is over and the remainder of the group goes into support mode until help arrives.

I've only had one close call in a group (potential hypothermia), and the thought of leaving one or two behind never crossed my mind. In as a team, out as a team.

Thoughts?

 

[IntrepidXJ]

I think this might be more of a case of bad reporting.

This is the story from someone 'in the know' from this thread on 14ers: https://www.14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=63373

I had the same initial reaction as all of you after reading this report. Unfortunately, the reporting about this incident was terribly bad, and all news sources just regurgitated the initial bad reporting without doing any fact checking. I learned today that the injured hiker was a good friend who has extensive Grand Canyon off-trail hiking experience. We've done many hard technical and non technical routes together. There were five people in the group, but they split up to explore different things in Kanab Creek. A group of three went ahead and just happened to have all of the Inreach devices. A group of two were behind checking out different canyon delights. Neither of the group of two had Inreach devices. It was late in the day. One person fell and dislocated a shoulder. After assessing the situation and making the injured hiker as comfortable as possible, the uninjured person went ahead to find the group of 3 with the inreach devices to signal for help. The injured hiker was quite surprised that a night time rescue was initiated because most rescue organizations do not have night vision capable helicopters for night rescues. The injured hiker believes they made the correct decisions given the circumstances, and most importantly, still has four friends

 

[IntrepidXJ]

The real story: https://www.insider.com/injured-hiker-rescued-grand-canyon-friends-did-not-leave-behind-2023-9

 

[RyanP]

This is why I avoid reading the news and just come to backcountrypost instead