You guys do not seem able to understand the issue of who gets to decide what is “stupid” because everyone has a different risk tolerance.
I’m sure you could find someone that thinks certain things you do are too risky, so why do you believe you get to be the authority?
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Do you have folks in your area who attempt to climb Rainier during winter storms, who have minimal winter climbing experience, and bring no ice climbing gear, no shelter, and no provisions in case they can’t reach Muir or get down before nightfall? That’s what we’re talking about here. Stuff like this happens multiple times every year. It is stupid, plain and simple.
I’d rather die on the mountain than in my bed is no excuse for it. If people truly thought that, they wouldn’t be calling to be rescued, now would they?
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In truth, no emergency treatment is free. The cost depends on your health care insurance, covered treatment and deductibles. Nothing is free. Dental is extra, if it isn’t included under standand care, and then it doesn’t typically cover everything. Extended automobile warranties are fine until the coverage reaches what you paid as the premium fee, then authorizing additional repairs becomes touch and go.
Nothing is free. @MohaveFlyer is correct. If you’re eating nachos and drinking beer while watching football in your recliner, you’ll probably get a free ambulance ride if you bump your head when you fall out of the chair trying to catch a pass. You might even get a free helicopter ride if a nacho chip blocks a blood vessel. But if you’re hiking a ridgeline and you fall over a precipice dodging a timber rattler, that might cost extra. I guess you should check the coverage/deductible, before you decide whether to watch football or climb the North Face.
Nothing is free. Check the coverage, and before you fret too much, check the mental health provisions in case the thought of being rescued becomes too worrisome.
For example, at the beginning of a John Wayne movie, he comes across cattle ranchers preparing to hang a sheep herder (sheep apparently crop the grass too short making it hard for cattle to graze the same land). Wayne offers to buy the sheep at a brazen price. The shepard protests vigorously that the offer is robbery. Wayne asks the shepard if he thinks he can get a better offer . . .
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The Adirondack Almanac devotes a story every few weeks on rescues that have had to be initiated. Many are legitimate such as sprains and falls, but there are a number of stunningly stupid people out there as well. Advanced hikes and climbs with no experience or proper clothing and equipment. Deliberately wandering off-trail with no knowledge of how to navigate, no maps, no compass, or GPS. No food or water. Depending on a cell phone where there is no coverage. Total failure to monitor the predicted weather. Etc., etc.
It’s gotten so bad that the Park Service has had to station people at some trailheads to turn away dramatically unprepared people. Of course they do not have enough Rangers or the budget to catch everyone. There have been a lot of rescues and a number of deaths and missing people and this year it seems worse than usual.
Darwin
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On the road biking forum we have a saying “cycling is dangerous but not as dangerous as not cycling “
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For every story of unimaginable stupidity that makes the Adirondack Almanac, Lake Placid News, or Adirondack Daily Enterprise, there are at least ten that don’t.
Darwin is working double shifts and still not keeping up!
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Tis the season just around the corner. Water tragedies and rescues will soon be popping up in the news.
-sing
Who rescues the Fish and Game people?
Apparently no one. Our late friend DuluthMoose was MN DNR for 37 years (If I recall correctly and if that counts as a Fish and Game guy - he was an upper level guy working on Lake Trout stocking programs.) and died canoeing. This is no joke. He was a thoughtful, kind generous man and a very experienced outdoors-man and canoeist. He is missed.
Nobody, regardless of employer, can count on being rescued. We are each individually ultimately responsible for the risks we take in anything we do.
Here he is on the Green R. in UT paddling with his wife (they celebrated their anniversary in a box canyon on this trip) PuffinGin.
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An accident?
Edit: The point I was trying to make is, people get themselves into trouble in various environments, the mountains , offshore, woodlands and rescue teams go in and get them. They are called, they go and people expect it. They can be taken for granted, but they have to overcome the conditions that overwhelmed you. I don’t think people realized that and what they do.
Well, accidental certainly. To the best of my knowledge, no one knows for sure exactly what happened.
Late Autumn in MN, so cold water and, as I understand it, patchy snow at a somewhat steep and tricky put-in. When he didn’t show up when evening came PuffinGin worried and a search was launched. His boat was found, empty and dry, on the other side of the lake. PFD and paddles still in the car. Not a stroke or heart attack. So ???
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Started down here already
1 dead, 3 missing after boat capsizes in St. Johns River
Four recovered safely after incident
(as of now, 3 dead, one (child) still missing)
no pfd, 8 in an 18-foot boat, 4 stayed on top of boat after it went over
Where was he found, on land, on the water? People have to have an idea what happened.
For many paddlers this is a particularly good time of year to be thinking of being extra careful. This is a good time for this thread. We’ve been cooped up, dreaming of getting out for a paddle. Remembering all those sunny days on the water, nights around the campfires, conversations, sometimes with friends who have passed and with whom we’ve shared river trips. We’re itching to get out and hit the water. Temptations are running strong.
But the water is now dangerously cold and frequently high this time of year - and we’re just a bit rusty from not regularly paddling. All my life I’ve hit the water on St. Pat’s day or Easter, and I wouldn’t be the one to advise avoidance of early paddling at all costs, but its a very good time to be extra careful and not push the envelope. Let folks know what you’re doing and where. Paddle with others with experience if you can and stay within range of each other in case helping each other should become necessary. Dress for immersion, carry a change of clothes, and be able and prepared to get a warming fire going FAST. Don’t forget our old Pnet friend wgiven who died running snow melt white water. (And a DNR guy witnessed it but was unable to assist.)
Walt’s favorite quotation, and one that comes to my mind when I think of all the folks I’ve paddled with and had campfire conversations with, is from Norman Mclean’s “A River runs Through it.”
Though that story centers on fishing, it in many ways could also apply to paddling.
Here’s a bit from the ending of the movie that was based on the story - pick it up at 1:06 or so…
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I am guessing that most motorboat accidents have to do wIth alcohol and/or high HP “machismo”.
With paddlesports’, particularly in spring and fall, it’s ignorance about coldwater immersion and the lack of skills and conditioning to stay upright.
-sing
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When a new coworker first joined my office, I once responded to a statement he made with, “In 100 years, none of this will matter to us.” The day I retired, I told him, “Bob, in 50 years, none of this will matter!” He reminded me of what I said to him when he joined the work force. So I explained that times change. Recently, I responded with, “In 25 years, none of this will matter!” He asked what has happened to the time? All I could say is that it’s gone. Now we enjoy the memories (if we’re able) and look forward to tomorrow.
Life is a series of chances. The question for each is whether you want to live 100 years or feel like every day is 100 years as you cross off the days and watch the minutes pass on the clock. There is a condition where a person never ventures outside the home. A professor of Abnormal Psychology explained that “All behavior serves an adaptive function.”
It’s not a stretch of imagination to realize how some of the activities we engage in are high risk. We each have a threshold. If I paddle in 58° water, with no PFD, in a 10 ft recreation boat, on a 60° day, and I succumb to that poor judgement, in 100 years, it won’t matter to us. It’s just a simple matter of how far I’m willing to go to get my kicks.
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I agree that what we do (or die) doesn’t matter much in the larger (or smaller) scheme of the cosmos. I do believe one should be prepared (in knowledge and skills) and accountable in the matter of one’s safety when going out into challenging outdoor venues. If the rescuee is not self accountable, I think we make it “matter” by the way of said rescuee’s pocketbook.
-sing
willing to play and pay if warranted.
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Very true that it is in our own self-interest to be prepare and take care of our own safe passage. Mechanisms are there for our aid, but its uncertain whether anyone can provide help in time. Reaching an advanced age is an indication that we have been at least partially successful in managing our safety. It only takes one slip, yet we still seem to enjoy tempting fate.
The irony is the adminishment levied against people paddling rec boats, coming from kayakers chipping ice to reach open water, paddling around frolicking whales or disintegrating glaciers, and ve turi gbout into hurricane whipped oceans to ride a wave.
It sure is a crazy reality. I’m not suggesting anyone give it up or change. Just marveling at the diversity of thought. I think about that when I’m adminished for not wearing a spray skirt or carrying a pump when I think a kitchen sponge is adequate for me. Maybe I need more adventure . . . Naaah! I’d rather live vicariously through your videos.
In a 100 years, none of this will matter. The only reason we do anything exciting is because daily life is too tedious.