Reply #76: Sigh.. not getting through to you.

[lapfog_1]

Precisely because I think it can happen to me EVERY TIME I DIVE (even if it was to clean the bottom of the dive boat in the harbor in less than 15 feet of water) that I exhibit a total respect for the environment. That doesn't mean that I'm perfect and that I can't die while diving. Accidents can happen. Accidents WILL happen. If you dive/rock climb/parachute or walk across the street. It's what you do before hand that's important. The training, the equipment you take, the precautions. And above all, the willingness to simply not go if the conditions aren't right.

All of the precautions, all of the training, all of the experience can mean nothing, accidents will still happen, even fatalities. Like Steve Irwin. Pure accident. He was not being stupid or even careless. Doing something with a risk, yes, but not stupid. He engaged in riskier behavior than most, but with more care and training than most as well.

In the situation at Mt. Hood is a bit different. They didn't respect nature, they did not go climbing with the proper equipment. That's the difference.

If they went climbing and had all the equipment and fell into a crevasse, that would be a horrible tragedy but likely not a act of stupidity. With their Mt. Hood locater beacons on their bodies, the rescuers would have been able to pull their bodies out on the first day of rescue operations. A sad but unlikely accident.

But that's not what happened. They had some sort of accident (where one climber was injured), they built shelters for themselves to survive. Had they been found either before the huge winter storm or the day after (with their locaters activated), they most likely would have survived. But they neglected to take these widely available devices which are marked as required.

The only thing left is to try to learn from the mistakes of others. Not to stick your head in the sand and say "oh, well, mistakes happen even to the best trained people" or the corollary "This sport is too dangerous, people shouldn't do it".