As warmer weather arrives across the United States, outdoor enthusiasts are returning to America’s parks and forests to hike and run the country’s beautiful and often remote trail networks. However, with the influx of tourists comes an increase in wilderness emergencies, some of which require complex and costly search and rescue operations. Seven hikers were rescued in one week in April in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, and another was found dead on the trail after failing to return from a solo backpacking trip.
A new paper by Boston University researchers attempts to curb such incidents using the first data on the preparation of day hikers and trail runners. The results could help educate adventurers on what to pack and know before heading out into the wilderness.
In a survey of more than 600 visitors to Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, John Lambert (SPH’24) of the BU School of Public Health asked those returning from a day hike or trail run about their experiences in the wilderness and the equipment they had brought with them. Study participants were classified as wilderness prepared if they carried at least 1 liter of water, seven emergency supplies on the National Park Service’s “10 Essentials” list, a map or equivalent wayfinding device, and two rescue equipment or one of eight of the 15 recommended first aid supplies.
His study, published in the journal Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, found that most hikers and trail runners, especially those with little prior wilderness experience, do not carry the necessary emergency equipment and are poorly prepared for high altitudes. He concluded that these are problems the park could alleviate with more targeted educational support, known as preventive search and rescue (PSAR).
“From a public health perspective, being outdoors is always great, to be honest,” says Lambert, a research fellow in the BU Center for Climate and Health. “That being said, you need to be smart about it, and being prepared can save your life and the lives of others.”
The Brink spoke with Lambert about his research and how hikers can be better prepared for the great outdoors.
Q&A
Brink: One of your most striking findings is that the vast majority of hikers and trail runners rate themselves as well prepared, but when you look at what equipment they actually had and the depth of their knowledge, a different picture emerges. Only a minority of day hikers (15.7 percent) and trail runners (25 percent) were prepared for nature. How would you explain the gap between perception and reality?
Lambert: Part of it is definitely just judgment. People may think they are ready, but their definition of “ready for themselves” may be different than the definition we were using. Our definition was probably strict in some ways, but I think we can all agree that if someone is carrying everything on our list, they’re pretty well prepared. For short hikes, you may not need all of this.
I think a lot of the problem, unfortunately, is people who don’t realize that they can save themselves when they get into trouble, or help others when they meet someone in need along the way. People might not think about that when they’re packing. They may just throw in food and water and not think about anything else that could really help. Raising awareness about how important preparation is is one of the biggest things we hope to take away from this study.
Your study appears to be one of the first, if not the first, to take a closer look at trail runners as a unique group separate from hikers in terms of preparation. What specifically did you learn about trail runners, and why is the distinction between hikers and trail runners important?
Trail runners generally travel lighter and often cover more ground in the same amount of time. To my knowledge, this is the first study of its kind on this population. We found that trail runners were significantly younger than the hiking population, tended to run in small groups, had a much higher percentage of running alone, and were slightly more experienced. They were also more likely to have previously experienced a wilderness injury or illness. Similarly, more than a quarter of trail runners reported falling significantly off the trail while running. In comparison, only about 3% of day hikers deviate significantly from the trail. I can’t say that[these differences]are super surprising, but they do make sense because some of these things can potentially put you at higher risk, like running alone, for example.
Another difference we noticed was a small but significantly higher proportion of trail runners who experienced an injury or illness on the survey date. This made me prone to altitude sickness and ankle injuries. But it’s still a little worrying given everything else we’ve learned. In fact, they tended to be better prepared than the average day hiker and had a higher percentage of people who were ready for the wilderness.
This suggests that trail runners do different activities and carry different items, so you need to approach them differently or send a more targeted message. They may have different ideas. I think more research needs to be done in this area to understand how many other outdoor populations differ.
What was the most important thing that separated the well-prepared visitors from the unprepared ones? Was it age? experience? where did they live?
The biggest thing was the experience. We looked at the age and number of years someone reported recreating in the wilderness, but these were not correlated with readiness. For the older guys, I don’t know if it was a sense of complacency or security or just something else, but they couldn’t have been more prepared. However, those who had previously experienced injury or illness in the wilderness were better prepared. The same goes for the number of days spent in the wilderness per year. The more days you are active outside, the better prepared you will be. Those who self-reported higher levels of wilderness experiences and longer trips tended to be more prepared.
Has Rocky Mountain National Park made any changes based on your research?
They are making some efforts to redesign the signage and improve the information there. I follow their Instagram and I know they’ve been doing some really great posts about trail safety lately.
My hope is that they will use some of this research to conduct other PSAR efforts, particularly targeting populations who have been found to be unprepared. Parks are already doing great work, but there are also opportunities for volunteers and rangers to engage with visitors and ask questions like, “Do you have enough water?” Do you have the right equipment? Are you ready for today’s hike or run?
One of the biggest findings was that three-quarters of hikers reported letting someone know where they were going and when they would be back. But that means a quarter are not telling anyone where they are going or when they will return. This was low for a trail runner. Only about 16% of trail runners reported not doing it. I think this is one of the lowest-hanging fruits we’ve found in terms of opportunities to increase preparedness. This is not something you need to carry around. This is not something you need to buy. But this makes a big difference if something goes wrong and you need to call search and rescue. Time is of the essence, and if search and rescue teams know where to look first and receive an alert just an hour or two after the estimated arrival time, versus a day later, it can easily mean the difference between life and death.
sauce:
Reference magazines:
Lambert, J.T. others. (2026). Know before you go! A field study of the preparedness of wilderness day hikers and trail runners in Rocky Mountain National Park. Natural environment and environmental medicine. DOI: 10.1177/10806032261430331. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10806032261430331
