Yikes!
Thanks, but no thanks.
Posted on 06/14/2009 7:32:20 AM PDT by socal_parrot
As many as 30 horrified onlookers saw a male hiker plunge hundreds of feet to his death Saturday as he was climbing Yosemite's world-famous Half Dome, park rangers said.
The man, who was not identified pending notification of relatives, fell at 3:40 p.m. as he climbed the granite edifice in the midst of a hail storm. The hiker fell to a shoulder of the dome about 1,800 feet from the top.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Prayers for the family.
Not fun.
Awful.
Everything we do in life has risk, some more than others.
pushed the hiker from Half Dome.
Yes, I grieve for this climber, "Ask not for whom the bell tolls ...", but he was probably doing something he loved. Everything has risks and what worries me is that there are almost certainly more than one proposal to ban climbing in National Parks being worked up for our own good! Equally, there are probably lawyers looking for deep pocket defendants for lucrative law suits!
I do believe someone gets hurt or dies every year at that spot.
schu
Now thats just plain stupid.
In a story I read many years ago chronicling the first successful climb of El Capitan (which I think was in the early 60’s) there was a recounting of some of the failures, including an incident which occurred when some climber got stuck halfway up. Rescuers set up to repel some 2,500 feet down from the top but due to an error a rope about 2,100 feet long was set up (instead of a similar color rope which was 3,100 feet, so one of the rescuers - operating in darkness-repelled off the end of the rope and well... Just imagine that moment of realization.
Just curious, are you saying that I am wrong or that it is stupid for lawyers to be seeking grounds for a lawsuit? I tell you this, given the number of lawyer solicitations that I got for a bad rear-ending into my car, every publicized accident is likely to have interested eyes. To some extent, this is good if it identifies defects, but until we get a 'Loser Pays' civil lawsuit system, we will continue with surplus ambulance chasing. (My Opinion - of course - grin)
I had the privelge enjoyed by few humans alive today of having Yosemite almost all to myself.
In 1995 when the rats played games and forced the repukes to shut down the gubbamint's irresponsible spending, the rats responded by punishing Americans and shut down all national parks including Yosemite. My visit was to happen that weekend. We got word last minute that it reopened and drove on up.
There was almost no one there. At camp Curry when we arrived, there were two cars. One was a station wagon and the other was a news van filiming the station wagon being the only car there other than ours.
We started hiking. NO ONE on the trails. We had brought a bottle of fine scotch.
At a pretty good altitude, we popped open the scotch and enjoyed it in silence. There was no one else near us, it was my bro, me and God. Amazing experience I will treasure forever.
There’s an opening scene in a Sly Stallone movie where he drops a girl he is rescuing from an aborted climb that horrifies me everytime I watch it. I just cannot process the shear terror ...
And that is why you put a knot at the end of a rope when rappelling. That is a rule for dropping pits in caves.
we already have a loser pays system. whenever a case is taken on contingency, the lawyer bringing the case incurs the costs. if he brings a frivolous case, he is likely to wind up in the red. I understand you probably aren’t aware of how the system really works, but the deck is stacked against the little guy. Without the threat of a lawsuit, insurance companies would rarely pay claims. They pay few enough as it is. In this example, I seriously doubt that a suit would survive a summary judgment motion absent some evidence of wrongdoing by the NPS.
That was probably one of the two doctors who fell from Mt McKinley this week. They were tethered together and both died in a long fall. Mt McKinley takes its toll every year. They also found two frozen bodies from a fall last year during a search this week.
I wonder if the Obama Health Care Plan will make people who climb Half Dome pay a higher premium for engaging in risky behavior. To answer my own question I will say probably not since it is in California and most of the climbers are likely liberal nutcase Obama supporters.
I have absolutely NO problem with idiots killing themselves while engaging in dangerous, death-defying stunts, but the problem I do have is in financing the cost of the rescues necessitated by their ego-trips. If they were required to purchase insurance to indemnify the first responders, medical providers and taxpayers, I would say "Go for it".
No, you’re mistaken, it was the Palin daughters.....haven’t you heard? They are all fair game now, according to Letterman.
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