Hikers Rescued from Subway

Is it typical for people to attempt this hike in the middle of winter? I would have thought it would be avoided due to the hypothermia risk, and this almost ended like the recent Narrows death that was posted here 2 months ago. Is the need for rescues increasing over time? I've only heard about these kinds of rescues since I started using BCP a few years ago, so I don't have a sense of whether this is typical or if things have changed in recent years. For those of you who've paid attention for awhile, I'm curious - are more people making unsafe choices these days?
 
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Stupid
 
For many people common sense died long ago and any form of sense they have left is on life support.............I feel bad for SAR groups as there is now a non-stop flow of Idiots in the backcountry who are in need of rescues due to zero planning and taking all the wrong supplies.
 
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Were they issued a permit or did they just go without one?
 
Janice said:
Is it typical for people to attempt this hike in the middle of winter? I would have thought it would be avoided due to the hypothermia risk, and this almost ended like the recent Narrows death that was posted here 2 months ago. Is the need for rescues increasing over time? I've only heard about these kinds of rescues since I started using BCP a few years ago, so I don't have a sense of whether this is typical or if things have changed in recent years. For those of you who've paid attention for awhile, I'm curious - are more people making unsafe choices these days?
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It all depends on the snow. The exit point is at a lower elevation so it may be possible to do a bottoms up route. But given all the snow at the higher elevation this winter, I would imagine just getting to the wildcat TH would be difficult, let alone following the top down route. No way I'd try those steep slopes and drop offs with snow and ice.
 
I like the way in the very first line of the article they make sure it's clear to everyone that it's "two-out-of-state hikers" from NY and NV. Ha! Small-town St. George paper simultaneously letting you know a) it's not one of your friends and b) it's exactly what you were expecting.
 
zionsky said:
I would be very surprised if rangers issued a permit this time of year.
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That was also my initial reaction. But if they had entered the Left Fork without a permit, I would've expected the NPS to underscore this in its press release in order to deter others from trying the same thing.
 
zionsky said:
I would be very surprised if rangers issued a permit this time of year.
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You can get a permit this time of the year. But you need to be well-prepared and know what you're doing. There are usually a few feet of snow to begin with at Wildcat TH, so you often have to break trail first to even get to the access point to go to the Subway.
And scrambling down that lava cliff in snow and ice if you intend to do the bottom-up route is no joke.
I did it once bottom-up end of December; it was no joke.
And I also snowshoed a few times from Wildcat to the permit-only area so I could update Wilderness about the conditions. And each time, there were at least 2-3 feet of snow.
 
I'm a little surprised to hear they would issue top down permits. I could see the bottoms up maybe. From the video, you can clearly see a lot of snow on the ground. Several of the rap anchors are kind of slippery to get to even in good weather. They made it 2/3 of the way down the route so I'm wondering what stopped them. Possibly injury or not being able to find an anchor covered in snow??
 
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