Safety on the Trail Search and Rescue Accessibility to the Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail (AT) stretches 2,178 miles from Georgia to Maine, in New Hampshire crossing twelve other states in be‐ tween. Founded in 1937, approxi‐ mately 10,000 people have com‐ Purpose Methods pleted the trek. About 200‐300 hik‐ The purpose of this study was to asses the accessi‐ The rescue time for each shelter was calculated by Network Analysis, add‐ ers complete it per year. bility of shelters along the Appalachian Trail in the ing the time it would take medical resources to get to the shelter, to the

state of New Hampshire. time it would take to transport a patient from the shelter to the nearest The 161 miles of the AT that fall medical facility. The “golden hour” refers to the ability to get a patient to within the borders emergency care within an hour, increasing survival rates. The networks of New Hamp‐ Results used were New Hampshire public roads, United States Forest Service shire are in‐ Table 1: Shelters within the “golden hour.” (USFS) roads, and USFS trails. Each network was assigned a speed (mph) famously according to surface type and size. Environmental costs such as slope and Rescue Time some Shelter Name (Hours:Minutes) water crossings were not taken into account. Velvet Rocks Shelter 0:39 of the Crawford Notch Hostel 0:41 most Jeffers Brook Shelter 0:42 Moose Mountain Shelter 0:54 treacher‐ Trapper John Shelter 0:57

ous. This in‐ Table 2: Shelters outside the Further Research cludes White “golden hour.” Mountain National The next step of this project Forest, home to Mt. Rescue Time Figure 1: Rescue times Shelter Name (Hours:Minutes) would involve two aspects: the for shelters in NH. Washington which Ore Hill Shelter 1:14 first would be to get incident re‐ Lonesome Lake Shelter 1:41 is notorious for having the worst Beaver Brook Shelter 1:47 ports from the AT and evaluate weather in the world. Rattle River Shelter 1:55 the trail according to the con‐ Greenleaf Hut 2:07

Hexacuba Shelter 2:28 centration of incidents along The state of New Hampshire spends Hermit Lake Shelter (1 of 2) 2:44 smaller segments. This could Hermit Lake Shelter (2 of 2) 2:44 $260,000 annually on Mizpah Spring Hut 3:02 then be combined with the ac‐ search and rescue opera‐ Gray Knob 3:06 Ethan Pond Campsite Shelter 3:12 cessibility data from this study tions, carried out by New Crag Camp 3:12 to assess the second aspect, Hampshire Fish and Game, Lake of the Clouds Hut 3:22 Kinsman Pond Campsite Shelter 3:29 evaluating the best locations for the United States Forest Service, and Zealand Falls Hut 3:29 either medical resource caches other private and The Perch Shelter 3:35 Madison Spring Hut 3:39 or medical facilities in order to volunteer run Carter Notch Hut 3:40 maximize the efficiency of res‐ groups. 135 peo‐ Smarts Mountain Cabin 3:49 Imp Campsite Shelter 4:01 cue efforts. ple have lost Eliza Brook Campsite Shelter 4:44 their lives since 1849 on or around Garfield Ridge Campsite Shelter 4:58 Galehead Hut 5:07 Mt. Washington alone. Gentian Pond Campsite Shelter 5:14

Guyot Campsite Shelter 7:59 Figure 2: Rescue routes to and from shelters (refer to Figure 1 Created by Sarah Hayes, May 6, 2009 Sources: www.appalachiantrail.org, www.hikesafe.com, Data Sources: Appalachian Trail Conservancy, United States Forest www.mountwashington.org, http://www.mountainrescueservice.org/ for shelter names and rescue times). Service, GRANIT (2006)