[Mike P.]

Waiting to see if we hear anymore on the presidential rescue, we have not heard the hikers side of this yet, I suspect we might get snippets in the paper eventually but they attempted a pres-traverse & it took considerably more time than they expected.

We don't know yet what they did to become delayed, they apparently hunkered down instead of meandering about in poor visibility or in treacherous conditions. You can't really call that a callous decision? I'll assume that they descended into the Dry River Wilderness so they could get off a ridge that may have been very windy & touch to walk on. That sounds like a smart thing to do. I read they were found in good spirits & in good condition & well equipped. I assume that means snowshoes.

Now the last guy going solo on Franconia Ridge less than a week after the other two guys, probably should be charged for his rescue. There was comments made that the first two guys should have had snowshoes & that the SAR folks found it tough going breaking trail to find them. So what's this guy do, he goes up without snowshoes. Weather forecast was for very cold tempertures on Saturday & windy. This should have been a red-flag not to stray too far above the hut unless you really knew you could get back down.