People rarely hike together for 30 year if not married, unless they have similar hiking speeds and styles. So this fellow was definitely way behind his friends GOING DOWNHILL. There must be a reason.
We have a semiregular partner who is slow going up but is blazing fast down and does not use safe practices, like stopping a trail junctions for friends to catch up, etc.
It has cost him a few times...going down an avy chute of Baden-Powell and a dip in Lone Pine Creek below Lone Pine Lake. Still he hikes with up. We shamed him for the former and he claims to have changed his ways.
There does always have to be a reason other than wanting to go fast.
