> There are many times me going ahead a bit to scout the trail and judge the impact of recent weather

I'm curious what you need to judge in advance that's worth getting beyond line-of-site of "newcomers"? I suppose if you're preparing routes which take time this makes sense but I'm struggling to think of examples.

Things change awfully quick and it's a nightmare when you lose a group member and have a vast and potentially densely foliaged area to search with rescue teams many hours from responding.

As long as everyone's aware of the situation and properly prepared then it's certainly their choice to make.