I'm sorry that I sound so callous to some of you, but I have been seeing things like this happening for multiple DECADES.

Around this forum, the usual attitude is "Prepare for the worst, hope for the best".

But some of the ice climbers (not all) seem to have reworded it a bit to "Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, unless we want to make a fast trip up a dangerous mountain, where we shall just assume that everything will be fine and we'll just trust to luck."

Now, I am not saying they shouldn't go, or should be forbidden to go by anyone else. Everyone has to die sometime, and I guess some want to pick their own time.

But it's getting others involved that is where I am having the problem. When a mother decides to sit out a Category 4 hurricane with her three toddlers, who's to blame for their deaths? When a too-fast driver sails off into a canyon with two dogs aboard, who do you feel the most regret for? When Harry Truman (of Mt. St. Helens fame) literally committed suicide on the mountain, he kept his cats with him. $#&%$ Harry Truman, it was his decision.

The bottom line is, I don't care about people who deliberately make the decision to put their own lives in danger. I just don't. It's their victims who get my sympathy. Sorry.

Sue