Re: Backcountry Meetings

A couple of comments -

One worry I have about this thread is the focus on "bad" encounters in the backcountry. I am glad most of the posts noted that the vast majority of encounters are good one. In my recent sojourn in the Dolomites, I was reminded of the custom of mountain hikers in Europe to greet everyone they encounter on the trail, often stopping to chat a while (fun, when you only know a few words of each other's languages). At the least, there is a mumbled "Grace Gott" (short for "may the Grace and Blessings of God be with you in your travels through the mountains", basically in German, but used in all the Alpine areas, French, German, Italian, and even Ladino and Romansch). Doesn't matter if you are religious or not (even Soviets back when I started climbing and trekking in the Alps in the early 60s used the greeting). If someone had a problem, everyone was quick to help or go for help. In other words, very different from the worried, paranoid image conveyed by the "tell me of your bad and dangerous encounters" request.

Second comment is that during my life (and I am a card-carrying "elderly", after all, so it's a few decades), I have had far more bad and dangerous encounters in cities and urban areas than in the woods and hills. Yes, I have had my cars broken into and things taken (all of low monetary value), but only in the city. Yes, I have encountered would-be muggers, including some presumably armed, all in cities (but none actually carried through - when I was a professor at Boston University, almost half of the faculty and grad students in my department were mugged during the 4 years on or within a few blocks of campus). Yes, I have had places double-charge my credit card (a couple of gas stations and a couple stores, all in cities), and I have had credit cards counterfeited right down to the mag stripe (including the one that turned up in Japan with 4 dinners in Tokyo at something over $800 for each dinner!!! American Express caught it quickly, so no cost to me).

Point here is that cities are far more dangerous than anything I have encountered in wilderness areas.