On the plus side, he died doing something he really loved. He did not expose others to foolish risks.
No?
Only all the people that had to risk there own lives to go find him.
The notion that you put rescuers at risk has been and will be the cause of several heated debates, in this forum and elsewhere. I'll summarize my view on this in a few bullet points:
- No one forces anyone to join a S&R team. They do it because a) rescuing people has its own rewards, b) there is a certain satisfaction in training (preparing) and perfecting your outdoor skills to a level where you actually can go out and be an rescue asset in though conditions.
- The S&R leaders are highly skilled professionals that have a thorough understanding of the conditions and risks. They will not allow rescuers (which are a mix of volunteers and professionals) to take hazardous risks.
- The rescuers have a very robust safety net: Communications, proper wilderness gear and as they are part of the S&R efforts they don't have to wait for some 86 year old land lady to call in the cavalry: The cavalry is already there with them. Granted, there are risks, but nothing in life is risk free. No one has a better understanding of those risks, how to minimize them and what chances NOT to take than rescue personnel and their leaders.
This issue becomes pretty heated pretty quickly, so if you or anyone else wishes to discuss this further I suggest doing so in a separate thread.
I wouldn't kick a bear in the junk unless I expected to get mauled, and I wouldn't venture into the Canadian wilderness in winter unprepared unless I expected to freeze to death.
Very elegantly put - can I borrow that quote for similar circumstances?
How bloody hard is it to use a lighter and matches?
Very, very hard in deed - if your fingers are frozen. Even mild hypothermia can make this simple task close to impossible.
And it is not just a question of operating lighters and matches - you have to use them to set fire to something. Setting fire to dry wood is (usually) easy. Setting fire to damp, wet and/or frozen wood can be very, very hard in deed.
Not to mention you actually have to collect that wood. 2 feet of snow sort of complicates the task of collecting fire wood.
According to Mors Kochanski ("Bushcraft" book for Canadian boreal forest) you have to burn the equivalent of a quite decent three each day in -40C (-40F). I don't know how much you need for temperatures close to 0C / 32F, it would depend a lot of how well your camp site and camp fire work together, but it is still a lot of fire wood to collect. And in 2 feet of wet snow that is no easy task.
Never underestimate the difficulty of gathering enough fuel and setting fire to it when you REALLY need it.
Only an idiot does what he did.
That could very well be true - but please respect that we only know what the media tells us. In my experience, a lot of the details that are rehashed in the media will be wrong. Don't be to hasty passing out harsh personal judgment and name calling based on media reports.
Previous Topic
Index
