Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation

It's an interesting concept, and everyone has the right to take risks with their own lives if they so desire, but it seems obvious that these speed climbing stunts are going to lead to deaths...the caution required in such high risk environments does not lend itself to speed. Here's the last paragraph of the article:

This past June, Jornet and Stephane Brosse attempted to cross the entire Mont Blanc Massif in two days when Brosse broke through a cornice and fell 2000 feet to his death.

Tragic, but predictable. It didn't serve him right, but it could and should have been avoided. I don't think speed and icy alpine climbing environments are a good mix.

z

zippetydude wrote:This past June, Jornet and Stephane Brosse attempted to cross the entire Mont Blanc Massif in two days when Brosse broke through a cornice and fell 2000 feet to his death.

So Jornet decided to honor Stephen's memory by setting a new record in September?

Hoping not to seem negative, as I myself confess to the love of trying to zoom up mountains, his effort was either going to lead to a speedy ascent or a speedy descent...

z

Classic :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXhuodivct0&feature=plcp

Fortunately, being a klutz and slower than molasses, I'm not tempted to risk death setting new records. Climbing obscure peaks means no one has a preconceived notion of how fast I should be going.

Brosse broke through a cornice and fell 2000 feet to his death

Yeah, call me a worry-wart, but that seems like a bit of a down side to this whole speed climbing thing. Perhaps there's something to be said for such "old fashioned" techniques like placing protection and using a rope.

zippetydude wrote:Hoping not to seem negative, as I myself confess to the love of trying to zoom up mountains, his effort was either going to lead to a speedy ascent or a speedy descent...

Yeah, but there's got to be some kind of happy median. A fast trail run on San G is a little different than crack climbing and crossing glaciers with crevasses.

HJ

Hikin_Jim wrote: there's got to be some kind of happy median. A fast trail run on San G is a little different than crack climbing and crossing glaciers with crevasses.

My point exactly.

z