I see people climbing these and that ladder thing in the sky across two rocks and it just does not compute in my brain. I have zero interest in even being near those items. People who do have a literal death wish.
See, what you gotta do is not fall.
News of an accidental death always brings out the amateur investigators who’ll confirm the stupidity of the victim.
It reassures us that death won’t come, because I’m careful. This goes double for firearms accidents.
This should be a reminder to the suburban family units that go on strenuous or even straight up dangerous hikes, carefree and letting their children and animals roam everywhere.
I’ve seen tourists kids just casually fooling around on a ridge hike with a sheer 500+ foot drop on either side of a like meter wide ridge with no barriers. Dogs gladly running into the brush which leads to said 500 foot drop.
This hiker chose to free solo an almost vertical wall and unfortunately paid the price. Mountains are dangerous. People regularly climb and fall off Morro rock and that’s literally just a rock, not even a mountain.
This hiker chose to free solo an almost vertical wall and unfortunately paid the price.
This is incorrect. One because it’s not “almost vertical” (it’s a 3rd class scramble) and two because she was not technically free soloing - she wasn’t rock climbing and the protection in this case was the cables. I acknowledge these distinctions may not matter to you but they matter when talking about why these accidents happen.
This pisses me off. The amount of hubris is appalling. They told you weather was on its way but it didn’t look like it so you went anyways? So you trust your eyes that can only see a fraction of the sky more than weather satellites? Fuck off. Poor girl. Reared by a moron.
So many warning signs he just ignores. Worst was when she directly told him her shoes were too slippery.
As an avid hiker who can’t wait to introduce my kids to more difficult hikes when they grow up, I’ll always remember this story before deciding to ignore any warnings.
Not excusing the decision-making that led to this - but I’ve noticed myself that the scarcity of permits for some of these legendary hikes absolutely impacts decision-making. If this has been on your list for years, and you really don’t know when you’ll get another shot, you’ll be more willing to take risks you normally wouldn’t.
The permits need to be limited of course, I’m not suggesting otherwise. The only real solution here is internal. One good idea for situations where you may have to make a decision while emotional is to establish the go/no-go criteria before the emotions hit.
So for example, if pursuing hikes that have killed the unwary time and again, set some rules for when and why you ditch before you ever get the permit. Of course, then you have to stick with that pre-made decision for it to work.
I think another factor about some of these is how many regular (as in, not-outdoor-athlete) people do them every day. It gives an illusion of safety. I’ve done this hike - I’m a former rock climber, very comfortable with heights and exposure, and the cables felt recklessly unsafe to me. I really can’t believe more people don’t fall, and I’d recommend everyone use a harness and clip themselves to the cables.
Honestly between those two factors, the way our brains respond to scarcity / FOMO, and the illusion of safety caused by so much traffic…I think there are many people who believe they’d make a better call who would’ve actually done the same when it came down to it.