Reply to Brave woman hiker's last journal entries finally revealed

Forum Index » Off-Topic

Reply to "Brave woman hiker's last journal entries finally revealed"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This woman died because she was a moron who lacked basic survival skills.[/quote]

The moron part is too harsh, because we all do stupid things all the time. But yes, she died because she made a series of mistakes and lacked basic survival skills. As do many, many people who hike and do other activities. They just are lucky enough not to die from their mistakes. She was unlucky.

[b]To me it's similar to people who try to summit Everest and other high mountains[/b]. Many people are not adequately prepared but manage to succeed. Many people are not adequately prepared and fail, and some died. And even some people who are very prepared fail and died. Shit happens. All the knowledge in the world is not 100% foolproof.[/quote]

That's a topic deserving of another thread.  Many people who shouldn't be on Everest go and pay a lot of money to tour companies who put at risk local Tibetans to carry all of the stuff up the mountain for the Westerners who are looking to cross something off their bucket list.  It kind of makes my stomach turn.  There was an interesting documentary.  The sad part is that the Tibetans do need the income, but it seems pretty clear that they don't feel like they're respected.  I also suspect they aren't paid enough and that the tour companies reap most of the profits.  It's exploitation.

But beyond all of that, unless you are a professional mountain climber or at least a really, really experienced one (athlete level), I don't think you have any business on Everest.  But no one wants to hear that.

As for this hiker, I personally don't think that even experienced hikers should hike alone.  So much can go wrong.  The hiker could injure herself or himself in such a way that he/she can't walk.  But it just isn't wise to go walking alone in remote areas.

Even when humans were hunter-gatherers, they stayed in groups.  Why is it so hard for people to get over their ego and overconfidence?

Her biggest mistake was not stopping when her hiking partner had to go home.

Sure, lots of people hike alone and live to tell about it, but I think they're just lucky.  It's still foolish.  And if you are going to hike alone, then you should be extremely prepared.  I believe there's relatively cheap technology that doesn't rely on getting a signal.  It uses satellite technology.   I think they're called personal locators or something like that.  If you are determined to hike alone, you should at least get something like that.

The problem is in part that this woman wasn't planning on hiking alone.  Her trip was planned with a partner in mind.  So it's likely that she didn't pack or prep with "I'm going to be alone" in mind.

That's part of why should have cut the hike short when her friend had to leave.

I kind of view hiking in remote areas like going to sea: preparation is important, but you also have to have some sort of lifeline/communication/SOS system if something goes wrong, and a cell phone isn't going to cut it.  It's also not wise to go alone.  Why?  Because humans are social creatures.  When they're in remote, uninhabited areas (like the sea or the deep forest), it doesn't take much for them to panic or to lose a sense of sanity in part because of the isolation.  That's why even if people know what they are supposed to do in emergency situations while hiking or while at sea, they can easily mess up because the sheer reality of being so isolated is enough to send them into panic.  If there is one other person there, that sense of isolation and aloneness that makes people freak out isn't as intense.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics