Leaderboard

If Republicans stay in power then the Forest Service will be privatized then corporations will be happy to oblige. Right now the USFS is underfunded to enforce this system and yet it could work like a parking pass for winter access. There is more at work than education, evolving understanding of terrain and decision making are helping improve communication and hopefully will improve safety over time. Statistically professional groups make up less than 10% of fatalities in the last 30 years. Hikers and Climbers are about half of all fatalities in WA in that time with a large number of the accidents re-occuring in specific areas such as Granite Mt/Source Lake-Snoqualmie Pass & DC -Mt Rainier. Overcrowding in some areas and growing use in new areas is something we all need to work on. Intergroup communication is one area we can all improve on.

skiers look to be having so much gawdamn fun all the time it seems only appropriate the Foul Lord occasionally brings the fucking hammer down on them randomly and with full ill will...

I'm curious, do you consider wind an "objective hazard" in your paragliding @glassgowkiss? I understand you have sideboards as to when you'll take off, but it seems like it isn't totally within your control either.

you also usually don't hear of climbing being classified as text book addiction though. the whole "died doing what they love" thing...well that i think depends on your outlook on life and death. as has been pointed out several times in this thread already, life is fatal. we all go, and most of us don't get to choose when or why. "died doing what they love" is something not something that dead people say...its what the survivors say when they are trying to cope with the loss of a friend or a loved one. it just sounds better than the alternative. it does seem a bit silly, but people cope how they can. What will you do when the Risk Gestapo show up to take away your paragliding equipment because someone else deemed it too dangerous a sport?

Bob and I were scrubbing a new rout above tree ledge in the hot sun. I had left a piece of shrimp pizza out in the sun. I thought it had gone bad, so I chucked it. After we each led the route we rapped and this angry guy came up to us with a red triangle on his shoulder.