Are Some Experinced Tasi Walkers Mad Or Just Masochists!

[tas-man]

<Snip> Scott-Kilvett hut after a teacher and student that died from exposure on a day walk. On a warm summer day it is hard to comprehend how important that the humble historic boat shed was to saving the lives of a fellow teacher and students. <Snip>

Cheers Brett

In the interests of getting the facts correct about the Scott-Kilvert tragedy, here is a condensed version of the story from the Riverside High School Principal, Keith Walker's speech at the official opening of the memorial hut at Lake Rodway.

. . . and the Coroner's Report as sumarised in the Examiner on 4th August 1965 with the full story is here. (Enlarge to read more easily)

[Joel]

I've tried to reply but this damn thing keeps telling me I'm not logged in so I'll make it short.

Corvus, I am well aware of the incidents that have occured on "my patch". I have been involved in a quite a few over the years. I am one of very few that spend every day over winter guiding in Cradle Mt NP, over 1200m ASL. I am very aware of the weather conditions up here and the incidents that occur.Most of the rescues that have occured in such accessible areas are freak injuries or people doing ridiculous thing.

There was a rescue on Hansons peak tonight. I only have second hand info, but from what I understand a couple went up with a child. On the descent husband fell. Wife had to carry child down and get help. Man was rescued tonight at about 9:30pm. Let me tell you, the weather here today was quite bad and you would have to be crazy to try something like this with a child so late in the day. These are the people that you here about in the news and nothing will ever stop incidents like this from occuring.
People on this site, I would hope are into bushwalking enough to recognize such obvious dangers.

Sorry Brett, I should keep my mouth shut on public forums. Was that the lady with her Grandson found at the Kitchen Hut. The article is a bit vague.

[Joel]

i should ban myself from forums i think. I post before i think.

[tas-man]

I<Snip> Brett, sorry if I seemes harsh, but it was your quote. I am still not aware of the rescue you refer to. When did it happen?

Joel, SOB found and posted a reference he found to the incident Brett mentioned on the previous page - viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3595&start=30#p42483

[Joel]

Thankyou Ian.

[Son of a Beach]

There are clearly people who go walking in Tasmania who are very unprepared. Whatever the reasons for their unpreparedness (weather it be extreme weather, or lack of knowledge, etc), I think it's a good thing that we aim to provide conservative advice on these public forums which are read by many more people than those who post here.

Ie, we should aim to include relevant safety advice in our posts where appropriate, whether that means carrying the appropriate gear, or avoiding unnecessarily heavy loads, or whatever.

(how's that for trying to get things back on topic?)

[climberman]

There are clearly people who go walking in Tasmania who are very unprepared. Whatever the reasons for their unpreparedness (weather it be extreme weather, or lack of knowledge, etc), I think it's a good thing that we aim to provide conservative advice on these public forums which are read by many more people than those who post here.

Ie, we should aim to include relevant safety advice in our posts where appropriate, whether that means carrying the appropriate gear, or avoiding unnecessarily heavy loads, or whatever.

(how's that for trying to get things back on topic?)

[Son of a Beach]

There are clearly people who go walking in Tasmania who are very unprepared. Whatever the reasons for their unpreparedness (weather it be extreme weather, or lack of knowledge, etc), I think it's a good thing that we aim to provide conservative advice on these public forums which are read by many more people than those who post here.

Ie, we should aim to include relevant safety advice in our posts where appropriate, whether that means carrying the appropriate gear, or avoiding unnecessarily heavy loads, or whatever.

(how's that for trying to get things back on topic?)

heheh... yes, your amendment makes perfect sense.

I've been specifically mentioning Tasmania in my replies, because this topic is specifically about crazy Tasmanians and other people walking in Tasmania. Ie, The original question was, are Tasmanian walkers mad or masochists? (although I think he meant sadists not masochists).

[under10kg]

Sending a person with a light frame off on a 7 day solo walk that was not walking fit to carry heavy loads with 29.5 Kgs is totally mad in my opinion.
If they had just gone through her pack and removed the unnecesary heavy items they would have made her enjoyment of the south coast track pain free.

Given that the people are known to the original poster then in the interest of a fair go maybe he will give them a chance to state what they said and why. Or conversely we can go around and around in circles and batter a few more Tassie locals, not named of course.

I do not personally know the tasi walkers that gave the person I walked with the following advice. Carry 2 liters of white spirit, many layers of cloths and to carry fresh apples and vegetables. She also had enought dried food for 20 days etc. The person in question with told me they were very experinced tasi walkers having done the hardest walks in Tasmani many times.

How can anyone can justify 2 liters of white spirit for one person for 7 days.

You would have to have 10 cups of tea a day!
I was told many times by the walker in question that they are instructors in Nole and that they live near Hobart and that they were Tasi walkers and not USA instructors. I did see one of these instructors at the airport in Hobart weighing the pack at check in and not making any comment about the weight. Noles do a training camp in the desert in Australia.

http://www.nols.edu/

If you check out this site they do carry 50% of body weight in the training camps.
I can tell you that the person in question had pain that moved around day to day in most areas of her body everyday on this walk.

I really feel she was in risk of injury carring this weight. Lucky I helped her out.

Also she was going to have some hard words to these instructors at the end of the walk.

[corvus]

Sending anyone off with that weight of pack is very suspect and it is a pity you cannot " out " the perpetrators of this miss information so that it does not happen again.
One question though why would any intelligent non experienced walker take on the 7 day walk in SW Tassie in the first place ? I would have thought that most sane Adults would have done heaps of research prior to the walk checking more than one source
Do you think that someone should be contacting the "experts" to question their reasoning of carrying 50% of bodyweight or sorry to think "are you stretching a long bow" on this as it is starting IMHO to read like a "Brothers Grimm" tale.
Most if not all advisers ,guides , outdoor leaders I know need to be covered by liability insurance which does not come cheap and if they ended up giving wrong advice "the get out of jail clause " in the policy would exonerate the Insurers and cost the insured their entire wealth
Just an old retired outdoor leaders musings without prejudiced as they say in legal terms
corvus

[Eott]

This is my first post, and I agree with Nik that many others besides those posting will looking at these posts for advise.
IMO if you are a solo walker the buck stops with you. You should have aquired both the knowledge and experience to complete the walk you chose to do, you can seek the advise of others as to the walks requirements but it is your decision as to what you need and what you can carry.
The contents of under10kg's original post suggests,to me, the person in question did not have the experience required for a solo walk. It is a rare person that can carry a pack of half their bodyweight so the responsible decision to make would be to reduce the pack weight that her experience would tell she was capable of [ rule of thumb is a max of 1/3 of your bodyweight ] after reduction of weight she need to decide
if she had all she needed to complete the walk safely.
IMO solo walking requires a graduated walks approach, that is easier more populated walks to begin with building up to more challenging ones , I don't think most people would do the south coast track as their first solo walk.
Responsible bushwalking means recognizing your own abilities having the gear you need to safely do the walk and making the correct decisions during the walk. Making correct decision's can be critical to surviving, knowing when not to proceed or start a walk because of weather conditions.

Mark

[Liamy77]

maybe the trick is to go ultra light in a group of luxury carrying sharing folk?!

but ultimately well... you are responsible for your self!

plan plan train and adjust your trip to be safe AND fun at your level and get more than one opinion from more than one source if you are at all unsure

as for these guys (who i don't know) if that is how they conduct themselves as insured "proffessionals" perhaps they ought to be put out of business via an insurance claim!