Pedroslog

Oh man, I'm screwed! My house is at 7,018 feet! I just hope I can rap that 18 feet safely for help. Or maybe somebody will roll me down into the arroyo and I can activate my MLU there. Posting this again since it seems to be relevant here as well:

One of the best essays I've ever read regarding the issue of requiring climbers to pay for rescues was an editorial (I believe in the Tacoma paper) several years ago by then Superintendent of MRNP, Jon Jarvis. I couldn't find this article hosted online anywhere, so I hope that Mr. Jarvis doesn't mind me posting it here.

My opinion on the speculation is this. There have been people who were on the mountain, or who know the mountain, or who are seasoned climbers, who have speculated on what happened based on the known facts. This speculation has been useful and informative. Then there are people who have no idea what they are talking about, no background knowledge, and no connection to anyone involved, who are speculating and cluttering up this thread with inane questions. This is not useful. Their questions can be answered elsewhere if they would put just a little more effort into it. Their noise here has made it extremely difficult to extract useful information out of this thread, and to top it off they make snide remarks when requested to desist. This demonstrates a lack of consideration for a community that has lost at least one of their own. I don't know these climbers, but I know people who know them. Some of them asked me to try to piece this together the best I could and explain to them to the best of my knowledge what happened. That has been a difficult and frustrating task, in no small part because of the rubberneckers posting here. If the discussion in this thread had been left to people who have a reasonable idea of what they are talking about, and to family and friends seeking sound information, then this thread would have been a great resource, and going forward it might have been a great resource for family and friends seeking to find some explanation and closure. Alas, this is not the case, and it's a shame. As I suggested earlier, and some others have suggested, perhaps there are some lessons to be learned here (for the managers of this site) about how to better manage this circus when it happens again.

Man, I really wish you would stop posting your groundless speculations. The above is so full of errors it's beyond salvage. You are not a detective trying to solve a mystery, you are someome who has no idea what they are talking about, and no background knowledge to even understand what knowledgeable people have posted, spewing worthless crap into a thread that is about MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY LOST AND DYING!!! You, and others like you, have turned this thread into junk. Have some freakin' respect for this situation and for the people who are involved in it. What facts are possible to be known will come out with time. I'll post again part of what I posted a few pages back: So I'm asking you and others, again, PLEASE, have some consideration for the people involved in this situation, and some awareness of where you are posting. This isn't some random news story about strangers to us, this is a tragedy that hits very close to home for many of us, some more personal than others. Please, please, stop your pointless posting.

I haven't logged on to cc.com in years, couldn't even remember my old logonid. Anyway . . . I came here looking for information after only getting back to the internet yesterday evening. It has taken hours of slogging through worthless posts in this thread to try and glean a few useful nuggets of information. It has been an extremely time consuming and frustrating effort. People, I beseech you, please exercise some judgment when you consider whether to post on a thread such as this one, and unless you are absolutely certain that you have something useful to add I'd encourage you to refrain, especially the non-climbers. This thread (and future threads of the same nature) would be much more useful if you would spend more time reading and left the posting to those who know what they are talking about. If any family or friends of the climbers are still reading this thread, or if they come back to read it later, then the useless posts are only cluttering what useful information they might find here, and even quite possibly confusing their understanding of this event. A suggestion for the mods and managers of this site: in the future when an event like this occurs it might be a good idea to call "all hands on deck" and turn up your moderation level a bit more. I would suggest you try to maintain one thread for useful information only and other threads for other purposes, such as for the non-climbing public to get their questions answered. As an "expert" source your site has a role serving both the climbing community and the general public that lies somewhere between the officials and the traditional media, and so it would behoove you (and it would provide a much more valuable service to all of your audiences) to take more of a PR management approach when high profile incidents like this occur. Just a suggestion. The circus is only going to get worse with future incidents. My thoughts are with the loved ones of these climbers, there but for the grace of God go I. And many thanks to the SAR people for all that you do.