Hiker rescued from Arizona trail returns next day — and needs to be rescued again

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 8 months ago

He did everything wrong.

A hiker was so determined to reach the top of Arizona’s highest peak that one rescue wouldn’t stop him from returning the next day to try again.

The 28-year-old Brooklyn, New York, man set out to hike Humphreys Trail to reach the state’s highest peak on Wednesday, March 2.

He did all the research on YouTube and AllTrails, a popular hiking website, before starting the hike, The Daily Sun reported. The information the hiker found said it was possible to reach the summit in two or three hours, so he started his hike at about 2:30 p.m., according to the news outlet.

However, on the way up the hiker became lost. He had to call 911 for help, Coconino County Sheriff’s deputies told The Associated Press.

“It was very easy to get off the trail and fall into the snow,” the hiker, identified by The Daily Sun as Phillip Vasto, told the news outlet.

As rescuers set out to help the man, he found the trail and began hiking downhill, FOX 10 reported. However, a search and rescue crew found the man and took him to a lodge parking lot to make sure he didn’t need medical care.

The man wasn’t injured and declined medical attention, AP reported. Rescuers encouraged the hiker to wait for clearer weather and revisit the trail when the conditions are better, according to The Daily Sun.

The next day, however, the hiker set out to try again. He started his hike earlier at 9:30 a.m. and made it far into the hike, FOX 10 reported.

“I was thinking if I start early in the morning, I’ll have all the time in the world to reach the summit,” Vasto told The Daily Sun.

Then he was hit with high wind gusts and less than ideal weather.

“On his descent he got off trail and fell, causing an injury,” the sheriff’s office told FOX 10.

The man called 911 again at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 3, AP reported. The Arizona Department of Public Safety sent a rescue helicopter to pick him up.

Apparently, it takes longer to reach the summit than three hours.  But let’s assume three for the sake of argument.

It was supposed to take him three hours.  So he set out at 2:30, which would have put him at the summit at 5:30, which is nearly dark.

What was he planning to do then?

He didn’t know how to navigate, he didn’t leave early enough, he got panicked and stumbled around and got injured.  He didn’t come prepared to stay overnight in the bush.  Apparently he didn’t have the equipment (maps, compass, GPS) to find his way there and back.  He had little if any food or water I would suppose, he had no cover.

Don’t do any of those things.

Always prepare for “less than ideal” weather or other conditions.  Always prepare like you intend to spend the night in the bush.  Or one or two more nights than you had planned.


Comments

  1. On March 10, 2022 at 3:12 am, Aesop said:

    No “Ten Essentials”? So he didn’t do all the research. So much for MSN’s level of accuracy.

    SAR should stop subsidizing failure.

    All 9-1-1 calls should inform the caller that a rescue will be mounted — in 24 hours.
    That will let Darwin’s Razor eliminate recidivism, because they’ll either find someone a day later who needs rescuing, or recover the body of someone not worth the trouble.

  2. On March 10, 2022 at 7:55 am, Bill Buppert said:

    Brooklyn is all you need to know.

    Liberals and government supremacists pride themselves on their lack of self sufficiency, it is a core belief system.

  3. On March 10, 2022 at 9:55 am, Grumpy said:

    Bill, you beat me to it. Brooklyn is all you need to know.
    For several years I lived in New Mexico adjacent to the Leopold Wilderness . Great hiking before the fire that scarred it and rendered many of the trails unusable.
    Anyway, every few months there would be another thigh slapper of some city dude (often from Dallas, Houston, El Paso or Austin) who got lost and had to be rescued or the body recovered. One memorable episode was some guy (El Paso I think) went for a Thanksgiving day hike off Emory Pass to Sawyers Peak (that I could see from my back portal). He was in shorts, carried minimal water, no supplies. He and his dog managed to get lost and wandered around for 6 or 7 days. That trail was then well worn and unambiguous. One would have to try to get lost. Anyway, the county and state spent countless man hours trying to find the idiot and finally tracked him down nearly dead. I have hiked that trail numerous times and still do not understand how he could have bungled it so badly.
    According to the later reports he had a fancy car and clothes, big job back in TX etc.
    My Dad had the perfect description for guys like him. “He’s got more dollars than sense.”

  4. On March 10, 2022 at 10:18 am, Bradlley A Graham said:

    Been on that trail multiple times in all weather. It’s not a walk in the park but it is no harder that South Kaibab or Bright Angel.

    This imbecile was already lost before he took his first step.

  5. On March 10, 2022 at 11:35 am, Frank Clarke said:

    I love that line: “…no harder that South Kaibab or Bright Angel…”

    At 78 with 8 stents, too many pounds, and arthritis, either of those would be the last thing I did with my legs. I’m talking about going down; going up is different.

  6. On March 10, 2022 at 11:52 am, IA Brooks said:

    When I was a boy, two of my uncles climbed Mt Adams (in Washington State) within the daylight hours of a summer’s day. To do this, they carried little more than a pair of water-bottles and a few candy bars between them. It was a minor feat, but as my father pointed out, a sudden storm would have left them as pillars of ice, a warning to future would-be fools.

  7. On March 10, 2022 at 3:17 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:

    Can’t fix stupid, and some people are determined to win a Darwin Award…. that’s it, plain and simple.

  8. On March 10, 2022 at 8:08 pm, Jimmy said:

    Years ago, before modern electronics, I suggested that any rescue would be proceeded by a helicopter lowering a charge card printer/reader, you know, the old “chunk – chunk” kind down a rope. Let the fool pay for his rescue.

    Nowadays, I just think we should quit rescuing people. Period. Let his friends, who he should have left his information with, rescue him.

  9. On March 11, 2022 at 7:59 am, Ned said:

    People get rescued often while hiking in AZ – even from urban mountains.

    But twice in a row? Probably wears this as a badge of honor.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment


You are currently reading "Hiker rescued from Arizona trail returns next day — and needs to be rescued again", entry #29621 on The Captain's Journal.

This article is filed under the category(s) Survival and was published March 9th, 2022 by Herschel Smith.

If you're interested in what else the The Captain's Journal has to say, you might try thumbing through the archives and visiting the main index, or; perhaps you would like to learn more about TCJ.

26th MEU (10)
Abu Muqawama (12)
ACOG (2)
ACOGs (1)
Afghan National Army (36)
Afghan National Police (17)
Afghanistan (704)
Afghanistan SOFA (4)
Agriculture in COIN (3)
AGW (1)
Air Force (40)
Air Power (10)
al Qaeda (83)
Ali al-Sistani (1)
America (22)
Ammunition (285)
Animals (297)
Ansar al Sunna (15)
Anthropology (3)
Antonin Scalia (1)
AR-15s (379)
Arghandab River Valley (1)
Arlington Cemetery (2)
Army (87)
Assassinations (2)
Assault Weapon Ban (29)
Australian Army (7)
Azerbaijan (4)
Backpacking (3)
Badr Organization (8)
Baitullah Mehsud (21)
Basra (17)
BATFE (229)
Battle of Bari Alai (2)
Battle of Wanat (18)
Battle Space Weight (3)
Bin Laden (7)
Blogroll (3)
Blogs (24)
Body Armor (23)
Books (3)
Border War (18)
Brady Campaign (1)
Britain (38)
British Army (35)
Camping (5)
Canada (17)
Castle Doctrine (1)
Caucasus (6)
CENTCOM (7)
Center For a New American Security (8)
Charity (3)
China (16)
Christmas (16)
CIA (30)
Civilian National Security Force (3)
Col. Gian Gentile (9)
Combat Outposts (3)
Combat Video (2)
Concerned Citizens (6)
Constabulary Actions (3)
Coolness Factor (3)
COP Keating (4)
Corruption in COIN (4)
Council on Foreign Relations (1)
Counterinsurgency (218)
DADT (2)
David Rohde (1)
Defense Contractors (2)
Department of Defense (210)
Department of Homeland Security (26)
Disaster Preparedness (5)
Distributed Operations (5)
Dogs (15)
Donald Trump (27)
Drone Campaign (4)
EFV (3)
Egypt (12)
El Salvador (1)
Embassy Security (1)
Enemy Spotters (1)
Expeditionary Warfare (17)
F-22 (2)
F-35 (1)
Fallujah (17)
Far East (3)
Fathers and Sons (2)
Favorite (1)
Fazlullah (3)
FBI (39)
Featured (190)
Federal Firearms Laws (18)
Financing the Taliban (2)
Firearms (1,800)
Football (1)
Force Projection (35)
Force Protection (4)
Force Transformation (1)
Foreign Policy (27)
Fukushima Reactor Accident (6)
Ganjgal (1)
Garmsir (1)
general (15)
General Amos (1)
General James Mattis (1)
General McChrystal (44)
General McKiernan (6)
General Rodriguez (3)
General Suleimani (9)
Georgia (19)
GITMO (2)
Google (1)
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (1)
Gun Control (1,674)
Guns (2,340)
Guns In National Parks (3)
Haditha Roundup (10)
Haiti (2)
HAMAS (7)
Haqqani Network (9)
Hate Mail (8)
Hekmatyar (1)
Heroism (5)
Hezbollah (12)
High Capacity Magazines (16)
High Value Targets (9)
Homecoming (1)
Homeland Security (3)
Horses (2)
Humor (72)
Hunting (41)
ICOS (1)
IEDs (7)
Immigration (114)
India (10)
Infantry (4)
Information Warfare (4)
Infrastructure (4)
Intelligence (23)
Intelligence Bulletin (6)
Iran (171)
Iraq (379)
Iraq SOFA (23)
Islamic Facism (64)
Islamists (98)
Israel (19)
Jaish al Mahdi (21)
Jalalabad (1)
Japan (3)
Jihadists (81)
John Nagl (5)
Joint Intelligence Centers (1)
JRTN (1)
Kabul (1)
Kajaki Dam (1)
Kamdesh (9)
Kandahar (12)
Karachi (7)
Kashmir (2)
Khost Province (1)
Khyber (11)
Knife Blogging (7)
Korea (4)
Korengal Valley (3)
Kunar Province (20)
Kurdistan (3)
Language in COIN (5)
Language in Statecraft (1)
Language Interpreters (2)
Lashkar-e-Taiba (2)
Law Enforcement (6)
Lawfare (14)
Leadership (6)
Lebanon (6)
Leon Panetta (2)
Let Them Fight (2)
Libya (14)
Lines of Effort (3)
Littoral Combat (8)
Logistics (50)
Long Guns (1)
Lt. Col. Allen West (2)
Marine Corps (280)
Marines in Bakwa (1)
Marines in Helmand (67)
Marjah (4)
MEDEVAC (2)
Media (68)
Medical (146)
Memorial Day (6)
Mexican Cartels (41)
Mexico (61)
Michael Yon (6)
Micromanaging the Military (7)
Middle East (1)
Military Blogging (26)
Military Contractors (5)
Military Equipment (25)
Militia (9)
Mitt Romney (3)
Monetary Policy (1)
Moqtada al Sadr (2)
Mosul (4)
Mountains (25)
MRAPs (1)
Mullah Baradar (1)
Mullah Fazlullah (1)
Mullah Omar (3)
Musa Qala (4)
Music (25)
Muslim Brotherhood (6)
Nation Building (2)
National Internet IDs (1)
National Rifle Association (97)
NATO (15)
Navy (30)
Navy Corpsman (1)
NCOs (3)
News (1)
NGOs (3)
Nicholas Schmidle (2)
Now Zad (19)
NSA (3)
NSA James L. Jones (6)
Nuclear (63)
Nuristan (8)
Obama Administration (221)
Offshore Balancing (1)
Operation Alljah (7)
Operation Khanjar (14)
Ossetia (7)
Pakistan (165)
Paktya Province (1)
Palestine (5)
Patriotism (7)
Patrolling (1)
Pech River Valley (11)
Personal (73)
Petraeus (14)
Pictures (1)
Piracy (13)
Pistol (4)
Pizzagate (21)
Police (656)
Police in COIN (3)
Policy (15)
Politics (981)
Poppy (2)
PPEs (1)
Prisons in Counterinsurgency (12)
Project Gunrunner (20)
PRTs (1)
Qatar (1)
Quadrennial Defense Review (2)
Quds Force (13)
Quetta Shura (1)
RAND (3)
Recommended Reading (14)
Refueling Tanker (1)
Religion (495)
Religion and Insurgency (19)
Reuters (1)
Rick Perry (4)
Rifles (1)
Roads (4)
Rolling Stone (1)
Ron Paul (1)
ROTC (1)
Rules of Engagement (75)
Rumsfeld (1)
Russia (37)
Sabbatical (1)
Sangin (1)
Saqlawiyah (1)
Satellite Patrols (2)
Saudi Arabia (4)
Scenes from Iraq (1)
Second Amendment (687)
Second Amendment Quick Hits (2)
Secretary Gates (9)
Sharia Law (3)
Shura Ittehad-ul-Mujahiden (1)
SIIC (2)
Sirajuddin Haqqani (1)
Small Wars (72)
Snipers (9)
Sniveling Lackeys (2)
Soft Power (4)
Somalia (8)
Sons of Afghanistan (1)
Sons of Iraq (2)
Special Forces (28)
Squad Rushes (1)
State Department (23)
Statistics (1)
Sunni Insurgency (10)
Support to Infantry Ratio (1)
Supreme Court (62)
Survival (201)
SWAT Raids (57)
Syria (38)
Tactical Drills (38)
Tactical Gear (15)
Taliban (168)
Taliban Massing of Forces (4)
Tarmiyah (1)
TBI (1)
Technology (21)
Tehrik-i-Taliban (78)
Terrain in Combat (1)
Terrorism (96)
Thanksgiving (13)
The Anbar Narrative (23)
The Art of War (5)
The Fallen (1)
The Long War (20)
The Surge (3)
The Wounded (13)
Thomas Barnett (1)
Transnational Insurgencies (5)
Tribes (5)
TSA (25)
TSA Ineptitude (14)
TTPs (4)
U.S. Border Patrol (6)
U.S. Border Security (19)
U.S. Sovereignty (24)
UAVs (2)
UBL (4)
Ukraine (10)
Uncategorized (99)
Universal Background Check (3)
Unrestricted Warfare (4)
USS Iwo Jima (2)
USS San Antonio (1)
Uzbekistan (1)
V-22 Osprey (4)
Veterans (3)
Vietnam (1)
War & Warfare (419)
War & Warfare (41)
War Movies (4)
War Reporting (21)
Wardak Province (1)
Warriors (6)
Waziristan (1)
Weapons and Tactics (79)
West Point (1)
Winter Operations (1)
Women in Combat (21)
WTF? (1)
Yemen (1)

November 2024
October 2024
September 2024
August 2024
July 2024
June 2024
May 2024
April 2024
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006

about · archives · contact · register

Copyright © 2006-2024 Captain's Journal. All rights reserved.