by cynthia23 » Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:23 am
Ah! At last we have the explanation for the rescue--excess testosterone!
(Nineteen+Male+Marines+Group of Three=Wild and Wacky Behavior.)
These guys are the Winter version of the three young men I met one summer day, who were going to attempt Skyline with two liters of water on July 4th, leaving the parking lot at 10.30 a.m.
But--so as not to start a gender war here, let's call it something more gender neutral: hubris. Or to use a less fancy word--these three were pure Dingalings. Sorry to offend, but starting on Skyline at 11 a.m.! In Winter!
The Mountain cuts three more Egotists down to size. Thankfully, they'll live to tell the tale, and hopefully learn some wisdom/humility. It would be a funny story, if not for the fact that craziness like this endangers others. I read the RMRU rescue report and while the writer is too modest to talk about the danger he was in, it's obvious that the helicopter rescue was very chancy for the rescuers, with dangerous high winds and poor visibility. Some of these hikers rescued lately seem to call for helicoter rescues like drunks summoning a taxi to carry them home from a bender at the local bar. They seem not to grasp that flying a helicopter near a big mountain is an inherently risky procedure--for the pilot. I hate to say this or even think this, but with these high number of helicopter rescues, chances greatly increase that sooner or later, one of them will result in a crash, with death or injury for the rescuers. I've said it before but hell I'll just say it again: before people do potentially life-threatening hikes, they ought to consider that the life they are threatening might not be (just) their own!!
p.s. Guest, your Packers joke had me rolling ....funny!
Q: How many therapists does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Only one, but the light bulb has to want to change ...
