In an earlier Oregonian article they had some account of his gear - he left his sleeping bag, tent and other essentials at the campground (SAR ended up being based there). He was used to 'fast climbing', solo. One might have a philosophical discussion with him now over beers or hot soup on the wisdom of the fast and light climbing school of thought. I think its more a form of russian roulette / suicide. But he's young and strong and will live to climb again. Bet his folks get him a PLB for Christmas.

Hmmmmm. Stay home all weekend because noone has the free time to go out or enjoy the outdoors all by myself?????

I'll climb alone.....

(If in fact he didn't have anyone to go hiking with.)

When you go out into the mountains you take a risk. Just like when you go out for a drive. Driving is far more dangerous.

I hike/bushwhack in the mountains by myself almost daily. It is no big deal. Maybe it seems so if you rarely if ever do such a thing. But then again I would feel threatened if I were to be in parts of New York city whilst others live there and feel perfectly at home.

My life has been on the line far more often while driving. A number of close calls over the years. But in the wilderness? Far fewer.

The press likes to hype these things up. It sells. But where I live there are dozens of locals who regularly hike these mountains without POBs and cell phones etc and etc. Just about the safest activity you can do hour for hour.

I thought that this comment from a member of nwhikers was interesting - lykkens was climbing down Mt Adams as the lost climber was heading up, they encountered him before he went missing. For anyone who sees some romanticism in eating centipedes...

"Glad that someone opened up this "can of centipedes". We saw him as he passed us above lunch counter [Mt Adams landmark] at 9400ft, he was under dressed, carrying a tiny day pack and was walking strangely on his crampons. He was aware that he was climbing into deteriorating weather and everyone on our team noted that he looked the least prepared for what he was getting into of the three single climbers we saw heading up as we descended. Our member who stayed at base camp even asked us if we had seen him because she wondered if he was actually going to climb or was just lookylooing. Where he fell was near where we made our navigational mistake, one that was rectified by comparing way points on the 2 gps units that we had on our team. I don't think you need to clean out the shelves at REI and carry all your gear up the mountain, but we had a stove with us in case our water froze or we got caught in a tough situation, on top of the layers (including goggles) that we ended up needing. Experienced means understanding your limits, reading the weather, listening to other climbers, being prepared for an injury if you choose to climb alone... I would not have classified him as any of those things, each individual on our team noticed him and discussed him long before he was reported missing. I'm glad he was found safely and I know the mountain can be a fickle beast, but you must respect it or you will pay handsomely... as will the tax payers of Washington & Oregon apparently."

The problem is when you go with someone you gotta actually interact with them on some level.

My trips are considered successful if I never see another Homo sapiens the entire time.

Seriously, I have to confess to solo hiking / camping myself and accept the consequences there of.

I also stack the deck in my favor by leaving detailed itinerary with my wife of where I will be and when I will check in and when to call the cavalry.

Haven't gotten a PLB yet, and it is on my list...

I'll bet he'll be getting a 'Touching the Void' DVD for his Christmas.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=b7zadH1ZqAE&feature=related

What kind of centipedes do they have at that altitude in Washington?

Even as a snail, ant, grasshopper and other inverterbrate eater I can tell you that there is no way I would eat a tropical centipede!

There's always a risk, but it's pretty common practice to go solo. I doubt you'll hear criticism from the climbing community just because he went solo; there's no consensus that solo is inately bad judgement.


I think I'll disagree with you there. Based on my experience, when one expects to be back before dark, carrying a sleeping bag isn't standard. The typical advice is to carry enough gear to survive the night if caught out.


That's the real issue. He was inadequately prepared, didn't listen, and headed into bad weather.

On the one hand, I admire him. That's dang good to survive five days injured in snow country. On the other hand, he went unprepared, blew off what other climbers were telling him, and didn't take into account the weather. What a bonehead.

So, it's a bit of both. I'm glad he's alive, but he really screwed up bad.

We've discussed the aspect of taking risks while playing, and my position on it hasn't changed.

If you are going to take risks that could require emergency assistance and thereby incur a significant cost to save your sorry butt, then you ought to be held accountable for those costs. Since most people don't have a spare $100,000+ laying around in a bank account (in other words self-insured), it would therefore make sense that anyone willing to take such a risk ought to be required to have insurance, post a bond, or otherwise provide some surety of payment in the event that their luck runs out before they get back to civilization.

In the real world, whenever people engage in risky activities as a means of earning money, they are usually required to have some sort of surety, usually in the form of insurance, that pays the bills for them if something goes wrong. The more risky opportunities usually require a higher premium for coverage, and to be sure there are laws and regs that limit the amount of liability should it become a matter or civil remedy in court.

Look, if I go to Baghdad on my own nickel just to see what it is like over there today, and I get myself in a bad way, should I expect the US government to send in the troops to come save me because I thought the risk was acceptable for the adventure potential? Lot on your knife (A Conan phrase).

I have no problem with people doing things that are challenging, that connect them to their environment at a basic, less civilized level. If they would include in their preparations for such endeavors some measure of personal accountability so that I and the rest of the folks in our community who aren't so adventurous don't have to come save them by paying for well trained teams of rescuers and the best equipment money can buy, then I think there would be a lot less griping from the peanut gallery about reckless behavior.

Then again, that whole argument could be applied to our society in general. There was a time when if you went off on a little adventure and you got in trouble, there wasn't going to be a big rescue, unless you had planned for it beforehand and someone with a vested interest in your rescue was committed to it.

It would be a good thing if there were an economic downside to going out unprepared.

On the other hand, in talking to SAR members, there's a fear that people won't call when they need for fear of being charged to leading to a riskier rescue or greater injury or loss of life. In other words a person might wait so long to call that the rescue becomes riskier (worsening weather, rising water, etc.) or the rescue becomes a recovery.

Generally, when I talk to SAR volunteers, they're against charging.

Personally, I'd like to see a "complete idiot fee," but that's unlikely to happen soon.