glassgowkiss

If you have not done it yet, I would highly recommend reading book by Steve Swenson "Karakoram: Climbing Through the Kashmir Conflict". Swenson is Seattle native and one of the best alpinists. I saw his talk tonight at Backcountry Essentials in Bellingham. If anyone plans on visiting Pakistan it also provides a ton of useful info. Buy it, read it, enjoy it.

Actually not true. Canada is among countries with so called "Visa Waiver Program". Basically you are granted 90 day visa at the point of entry. US Immigration do not stamp Canadian passports, but Canadian can be (and on many occasions were) denied visa at the point of entry.

Are you kidding me? Have you read AAJ accident reports?

This nails it. Yes, pretty much the reaction would not be "good job buddy, you are a great pilot", but you "are an idiot and I do not want to be around when you kill yourself".

Unfortunately not the case. 99% of accidents are a series of bad decisions, combined with some some bad luck. I only saw a handful of accidents we can classify as "wrong place at the wrong time". Marc had near miss on Stanley Glacier Headwall a couple of seasons back, where he had a huge class 3 ripper going over their heads. That should have been a wake up call for risk risk assessment. Avi forecast for that day was calling for considerable to high risk, and he still decided to climb in one of the worse avalanche terrain possible. Then he solos a bunch of crumbly rock routes and baits people to beat his day. Insane! Boils down to the fact, that there is a persistent glorification of risky behavior among climbers.

Again, this is horseshit argument, these issues are not binary and not even connected. BTW, Anker-with all his fitness and training suffered MI in Nepal. Even if you watch "Meru"- Ozturk suffered a stroke while on the climb. And that was one of these idiotic moments, where he should be evacuated to a hospital asap and treated properly, but they pushed on to the summit instead.

Of course it's an objective hazard. Each site will have it's own. However you use wind socks, streamers as wind indicators. You can use wind meter, determining turbulence, by measuring wind speed variation. You never fly on lee side, you have to understand Venturi effect. You use instruments that actually show your air speed, ground speed. I have rules I stick to: I do not take off above 12mph and if it's crossed more then 15 degrees. Walked of launches a few times.

It's exactly like with alcoholism, less with heroine or other opiates. But if you look at the pattern, some can drink alcohol occasionally, and do not get addicted, but some personalities can't live without. There was an article looking at "adrenaline sports", like BASE and some people present classic addiction pattern.

Interesting you mention drinking. I talked a couple of days ago with RN working in mental health. Funny thing: in some instances climbing could be classified as text book addiction. Somehow when someone drinks themselves to death or o.d. on heroine or fentanyl, you somehow don't usually hear that they died doing what they loved. Here is a short definition of addiction: "Addiction is a condition in which a person engages in use of a substance or in a behavior for which the rewarding effects provide a compelling incentive to repeatedly pursue the behavior despite detrimental consequences."

It states "objective", you can choose to ignore it. But if you climb for instance under active seracs, your skill has nothing to do with return in one piece- it's pure luck- nothing more, nothing less.

I started paragliding in Fall of 2016. You learn very quickly, that when shit goes sideways, it goes fast, and there is no pausing for a second. Hence as a complete newb I was told by a very experienced pilot: "Your bag of experience is empty, your bag of luck is full. The trick is not to use your luck, while getting your experience". Hence I fly a slow, stable paraglider (ENA), I don't take off if there is more then 5mph wind speed difference in 3 minutes, I don't fly when wind is crossed on takeoff more then 15 deg, and in general I will not take off unless I know I will have a safe flight. I have walked off launches a few times, and I am glad I did. Accidents will happen, climbing, paragliding, heck- I broke my ankle in November in a bouldering, padded gym. However I have noticed paragliders have much better safety culture. They have accident reporting. Plus I think they have much better mentorship culture. As a few pilot I was corrected on several occasions- see something say something is a norm. But in general pargliding is also regulated and formal. You actually have to take a course, pass exam, fly under a supervision of instructor. To become paragliding instructor you need to jump through a lot of hoops.

RIP

Your explanation of concern is on parr with watching a drunk getting behind a wheel of a car and learning he/she crashed into a tree. People who are suicidal usually suffer from mental illness spectrum (diagnosed or not) and nobody chooses to have mental illness, the very way people don't choose to have cancer.

And is my point. After soloing bunch of dangerous shit people usually will say: amazing, good job, great, inspiring and all such bullshit. Concern has only point if it is before not after the fact. Climbing, particularly alpine is inherently dangerous by nature. Having done my share of climbs in alpine in the past I would say I managed to get away with it on a couple of occasions. Back in march of 2002 or 03 I was nearly killed by an avalanche in the Rockies. While sitting in the cave behind ice curtain with two very experienced Calgary climbers we were discussing risk. One of them said: "oh well, if you get a chop, at least you were trying". My buddy and I looked at each other, both thinking wtf? Yes, there is admiration of risk among climbers, and there is a prevailing cavalier attitude about risks it carries. I am not the only person who is starting to speak out. Will Gadd wrote pretty extensive blog about accident he witnessed. In his text "The Grand Delusion" he sums things up quite well (here is a link to the text https://www.theactivetimes.com/grand-delusion). And here is from his blog in 2011: "For me I'm never going to use the word "tragedy" in reference to a climbing or mountain sports accident again. A tragedy is when a whole family gets killed by a drunk driver. A tragedy is when a little kid gets abused. A tragedy is when a 30-year old mother of two young kids gets cancer and dies. Dying while climbing, kayaking, paragliding, BASE jumping or any other form of outdoor recreation isn't a fucking tragedy, it's a clearly predictable result of doing the activity."

My point is that even though situations like this one is sad, it's hardly surprising. Given track record of people, who solo big alpine routes, outcomes like this should be expected. On the other note after soling a bunch of crumbly and lose rock routes in the Rockies, Mark posted a "challenge" on FB, which was kind of disturbing (challenging others to beat your "record" wtf?). I personally have zero interest in watching films of Honold soloing Freerider or other redbullshit driven content.

Honold was soloing before he was famous, so yes- climbers will do whatever. But that is not my point at all. Just don't act all surprised and concerned, when accidents finally happen.

Kind of ironic in those situations when people are concerned about safe return, after applauding big alpine solos in marginal conditions. Reminds me of mass shooting and "thoughts and prayers". Watching a whole generation of Poles die in different accidents, the truth about old and bold still stands.

If you are a member of AAC and have Global Rescue, or have Global Rescue independently, please contact them and tell them to drop their business association with NRA.

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Political situation in Poland is even more fucked compared to the US. I will elaborate more tomorrow, since my busted ankle I will have a bit time.Off to work though for now

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Chamonix