I remember one particularly distressing body recovery operation a number of years ago in which we retrieved the corpse of a young lady who had just flown to Arizona about two hours earlier for spring vacation. Her friends met her at the plane and took her to the local party spot, where she fell about 90 feet and expired.

This has made me think many times of my very first hike in Arizona with the university hiking club. The leader said "Let's do some rock climbing," which resulted in me taking a 30 foot slide, ending hung up on the lip of a vertical precipice about 40 feet high. Had I gone over, I would have been killed or at least significantly injured.

Well, I wasn't, and I eventually learned better. We were all newbies once.