Party Management at Minor River or Stream Crossings

The Mountain Leader Training Association literature contains plenty of information about the technicalities of managing serious river crossings and quite rightly emphasises the need to avoid them if at all possible. However, here I would like to discuss the management of relatively inexperienced groups on more minor river or stream crossings. The sort of situation where you might comfortably just hop across on a few rocks if you were on your own, where the aim is to try to get across without getting wet feet. Nothing more difficult than that.

I have hopped across a lot of rivers and streams, especially in the Scottish Highlands and the chances are that I will have had a lot more experience of doing this than anyone else in my group. 

Nevertheless, I have found that a previously cohesive group of people who were happily following and trusting me suddenly start to behave strangely when they reach a river or stream. Some people will be worried. Some seem to acquire a desperate need to find their own place to cross. Some will underestimate the risks and others would follow you straight across putting their foot onto a rock the minute your foot left it if you let them. It’s a very strange business and it seems to happen with even the smallest of streams despite the fact that it’s so easy to slip and hurt yourself as soon as you step on slimy wet rocks.

So unless it’s really trivial, I strongly recommend stopping the group just before you get to the stream and telling them to wait. Go take a look and come up with a plan. A bit like managing a group in the mist when you need to take a compass bearing.

You’ve probably arrived at the stream where the path crosses it and this is likely to be a good bet under normal conditions but perhaps there has been a lot of rain. You need to make sure that the least stable person can get across here. Bearing in mind that some stepping stones might be slightly submerged or wobbly, are there some possibly slightly submerged, additional rocks that you could stand on alongside those that he or she might use? Could you stand there and hold out a hand to help them balance? Can you or someone else lend them a walking pole that could be passed back? Would it help if you took their rucksack across for them? If you don’t feel they could cope, then you need to tell the group to take a break while you look elsewhere.

At this point you probably need to manage the people with a desperate need to find their own place to cross. Explain that you have had a lot of practice at crossing rivers and you need to find a place where you not only feel everyone can cross but where the risks are minimised. It may be that there are several large dry stepping stones close to each other that seem easy but if someone did slip they could bang their head, get soaked or worse. It might be better to accept a greater risk of slipping where the only consequence is wet feet. Explain that you are responsible for getting everyone across safely and you would like them to help each other to get across as a group. You don’t want to find out that all the people with good balance and long legs are already on the other side.

If you really can’t find a crossing point nearby, to suit the least stable person then the whole group is either going to have to walk upstream until you can, or you are all going to have to go back. If you are going to head upstream make sure they understand that you are looking for a suitable place to cross and think about how you will get back to your original route safely. Do tributaries on the other side run through gorges for example?

Let’s assume that you have now found somewhere that meets requirements. Go across yourself, leave your rucksack on the far bank, then come back and place yourself in the best position to help people. Have your best two crossers go first and last so that they can help people start to cross and to step onto the far bank. Explain the plan to the whole group and then execute it.

Does all this seem like overkill? Well just pick out the bits that you feel are appropriate but at least remember to manage the situation. Don’t just hop across and hope people will follow you.