dyslexia wrote:I'm sure some of you remember a few years ago when some fookin' idiot hiked into the Canyonlands in Utah for a bit of a hike. He parked at the ranger station near the sign that said all hikers must register their hiking plans. He didn't bother and off he went. He ended up with his arm under a boulder that rolled down on top of him and ended up, after several days, using a pocket knife to cut off the pinned arm and gradually made it back to civilization only to appear on many network news interviews as a "brave and rugged outdoorsman. He should have been an example, in the media, as an idiot. (he was free to be an idiot but the media had the opportunity to educated the public on potentially dangerous hiking and the need to register your plans with the park rangers.
That same guy is climbing again, btw.
To me; closing a mountain is a funny idea, just as closing a beach is a funny idea. Neither can realistically be done. If you've ever looked out from a South Florida beach before a hurricane, typically closed on account of riptides and wicked waves, you'd probably see surfers. And if you were real lucky; you may have even seen one middle aged idiot from Wisconsin, who after 2 hours of nearly being drowned, cut to shreds by the combination of being rolled over and dragged against the bottom by the undertow, just trying to get out past the breakwater, once, and only once, hung more than 10 on a wave that began some 100 yards further out than Lake Worth Peer.
Damn, that was f*cking cool!
Closed essentially means not recommended. No rescuer is required to rescue anyone at his own peril. Just like the climbers themselves; they make a choice. Likely, for the exact same reason (Adrenaline Rush). IMO, we already have too many laws protecting me from me. Next you'll want to take away my bike, or make me wear a helmet. Thank you; no.
If you don't want to fund idiot-rescues with Tax dollars; don't. But don't presume to tell me what risks I can take with my own life. That's just crazy. Everyone with a skateboard to a race car takes risks that others do not. Swimming pools claim more lives than mountains. Hell, bathtubs claim more lives than mountains. I rue the day I am no longer entitled to my God-given right to be a fool. For goodness sake; how is that we can still sell sugar based products? It's no secret it makes us fat and threatens our health in all kinds of hellacious ways.
If some fool wants to climb the Grand Teton in the middle of a January Whiteout; I say let him. If he want's to duck tape synthetic feathers to his arms and try to soar like a bird from a high cliff, after several hands of poker with his favorite hooker and some wicked hits of the Killer Kind; that's his business too. Please people. No more laws designed to protect me from me.
