Posted on 08/23/2025 12:21:50 PM PDT by DFG
Ed Vestras rule: “Going up is optional, coming down is mandatory”
While I have ~ZERO~ desire to ever become a mountaineer, and for the vast majority of people who attempt these climbs are foolhardy at best, she knew going in what the dangers were, and all associated risks. We can pray for her, but to send anyone else without a good degree of certainty of rescue is also foolhardy.
Think, before you roam to an inaccessible point on the map, placing the lives of others at high risk.
Why? To break some kind of world record?
Even a motivated Rescue Crew does not owe you their lives.
It’s wrong to assume that they do
A similar predicament happens to scientists who explore the Antarctic regions.
I wonder if there are any drones that can operate at that altitude while lifting 160-ish pounds. Take her food, water, oxygen, until the weather breaks enough to hoist her out.
Yeah. It also speaks to my feelings about the “no man left behind” attitude of some military people. I don’t get the idea of risking a man’s life to recover a confirmed dead body. Reminds me of that scene with the sniper in Full Metal Jacket. And yeah, I know the guy wasn’t already dead, but still...
She got herself up there now she can get herself down.
Mountaineers should pack small sleds in their backpacks. Might help a few of them.
I’m watching gplf today, last game of FedEx cup. Who neeeds to climb mountains? Plenty of excitement right on the ground.
Notes to self:
Don’t break a leg at 22,000 feet.
Stay home and watch a youtube video instead.
Military is COMPLETELY different. They risk their lives on the behalf of others; mountaineering risk their lives on behalf of their own egos. Apples and Oranges.
They don’t sign a release saying I’m climbing at my own risk- because coming down actually isn’t mandatory?
I would never compare/equate this to US military personnel on official missions
No sign of life
Sort of. I’m talking about risking lives when it is not justified - military and civilian.
What a stupid sport.
Then again, I recall ~20 years ago an article describing how the Pakistani military thwarted an attempt by an Indian squad to seize a peak along the disputed Kashmir border by strapping a pair of soldiers to the landing skids of a stripped-down helicopter and successfully getting them to the peak.
I’m not really equating the military to a mountaneer. I’m comparing sending risking people’s lives to recover a dead body, be it military or civilian.
As far as I’m concerned, the “sunk cost” fallacy applies to lives as well as dollars. The Full Metal Jacket scene is especially poignant to me because It was clear that anyone else going out to help the guy was just going to get gunned down too. So why on earth would you do it? You have to find another way - which they eventually did, thank you Jane.😎
“I’m not really equating the military to a mountaneer … be it military or civilian.
I’m just saying I would never compare this to military on orders.
Messing around with rocky mountain trails, too little oxygen, and freezing cold temperatures is pretty darn dangerous. And if you go up a mountain so high that you need sherpas and base camps, it’s expensive, too. But people seem to flock to these risky adventures.
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