[HN Gopher] 'I found your dad': The mystery of a missing climber
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'I found your dad': The mystery of a missing climber
Author : gmays
Score : 106 points
Date : 2025-05-01 23:36 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.espn.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.espn.com)
| sherdil2022 wrote:
| This was a very poignant read. Thank you for posting it.
| aburan28 wrote:
| This mountain was also the site of the most deadly
| avalanche/landslide in recorded history
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Huascar%C3%A1n_debris_ava...
| shermantanktop wrote:
| Having had a childhood friend lose both parents in separate
| mountaineering accidents, I look at the activity as a barely-
| disguised dance with death, nothing more.
|
| And given that, those deaths weren't "accidents." It's a feature,
| not a bug. They were playing Russian roulette until they lost.
| voidfunc wrote:
| Some folks are adrenaline junkies. Doing this stuff when you
| have kids though is negligence and even worse doing it when the
| kid already lost one parent to the activity. Fuck those parents
| and anyone here that's like them.
| jwagenet wrote:
| Most mountaineering is not an adrenaline fueled pursuit and
| many adrenaline junkies would find it's often non-technical
| tactics boring. Is it an egotistical pursuit? Sure.
| Objectively hazardous? Yes. But distance cyclists and runners
| have more in common with mountaineers than base jumpers.
| paulcole wrote:
| > Doing this stuff when you have kids though is negligence
|
| Obviously there's a middle ground but nobody says that giving
| up the thing that you love because you have kids is
| negligence.
| blackguardx wrote:
| Driving to the mountains is often more dangerous than climbing
| a mountain. Things change at the elite levels, but that is true
| for any sport.
| neckardt wrote:
| The problem with mountains is twofold: Many mountains can be
| climbed without being elite while exposing yourself to major
| risk, and for some mountains there is objective hazard that
| can't be mitigated.
|
| One example of an "easy" but high risk climb is Mt. Rainier
| in Washington. All you need to go up is a set of crampons and
| a backpack, no technical mountaineering needed. However the
| mountain is full of glaciers that can collapse from under
| you, which has killed many people. Additionally, many have
| slipped and then slid to their death. In my case, when I
| attempted Rainier I took a wrong turn at one point and almost
| walked off a cliff.
|
| Second: Objective Hazard. Objective hazard is risks that
| cannot be reasonably mitigated. Things like rockfall where a
| rock breaks off and falls on your head at random, or
| unpredictable avalanches. Mt Rainier as well has an area
| called the bowling alley known for its rockfall. The humans
| are the pins. Rainier also has an area called the icebox
| where cornices break off and fall into the climbing route. In
| 1981 the icebox killed 11 people in one day. Those climbers
| did everything right, but were in the wrong place at the
| wrong time.
|
| Mountaineering is not the same as other sports. It is
| sometimes deceptively easy, yet there are risks that simply
| cannot be mitigated. Any experienced mountaineer can give you
| a long list of friends they know that have died. That's the
| case in few other sports.
| billy99k wrote:
| It's the same with base jumping. I remember watching a
| documentary on it one time and almost all of the people
| being interviewed knew multiple people that died during a
| jump.
| amiga386 wrote:
| They are not the same.
|
| In mountaineering, if something goes wrong, you could
| die.
|
| In base jumping, if you don't do everything correctly,
| you will die.
|
| A bit like the difference of a car engine failing (it
| will roll to a stop) vs an airplane engine failing (you
| will come down hard on the ground)
| agurk wrote:
| An engine failing on an aircraft, especially a light
| aircraft, is not a guaranteed crash landing. It is a
| serious situation, however aircraft usually glide well.
| This means you have opportunities to find somewhere that
| is adequate for landing. Many aircraft with engine
| failures have landed safely on airstrips. Interestingly
| this is also the case with helicopters due to their
| ability to autorotate.
| the_af wrote:
| I think base jumping is slightly closer to suicide.
|
| Or that almost suicidal thing with the wingsuits some
| people do: I get the appeal, I'm sure the rush of feeling
| like flying must be incredible, but they are playing
| Russian roulette.
| ghaff wrote:
| Wingsuits aren't something I really follow. But my
| understanding it's an activity that most serious
| practitioners die sooner or later from a crash/fall.
| dh2022 wrote:
| I have been thinking about starting to do air gliding. Is
| this a dangerous sport? How long does it take to get to
| glide a few miles? Any pointers pointers (books,
| videos,etc..) to start up? I live nearby Seattle, WA.
| Thanks!!!
| mhandley wrote:
| When I used to do gliding (sailplane, not hang gliding or
| paragliding) many years ago, it was not classed as a
| dangerous sport for insurance purposes. Don't know about
| the other fields of gliding. General aviation was classed
| as riskier - I guess glider pilots are more used to the
| fact that they don't have a working engine!
| anothereng wrote:
| you're right if you like nature go camping or somewhere
| that you don't have to risk your life imo
| rufus_foreman wrote:
| >> Objective hazard is risks that cannot be reasonably
| mitigated. Things like rockfall where a rock breaks off and
| falls on your head at random, or unpredictable avalanches
|
| Those risks can be mitigated. They can't be reduced to
| zero, but they can be made less severe.
|
| Avalanches don't typically happen randomly out of the blue
| any more than thunderstorms do in the midwest. In the
| midwest, you know days ahead of time that there is going to
| be a risk of thunderstorms the same way that you know days
| ahead of time when there is going to be a high avalanche
| risk. You know the amount of recent snowfall, you know what
| the weather is going to be, and you know how to recognize
| avalanche terrain.
|
| Rockfall does not occur completely randomly. If you go to a
| place overlooking something like the bowling alley on a
| warm summer afternoon, you will see and hear rocks the size
| of cars or small houses bouncing down the slopes. If you go
| on a cold winter morning before the sun hits the snow, you
| won't see or hear that because everything that is frozen in
| place will stay frozen in place. You choose the time of
| your climb to mitigate risks from rockfall, avalanches, and
| weather. Mitigate does not mean reduce to zero.
|
| Yes, mountaineering can be risky. Everyone decides their
| own level of involvement. Climbing a walkup in bluebird
| weather has less risk than driving to the grocery store.
| Attempting to climb K2 kills 25% of the people who do it.
| Mountaineer's choice. If you've got kids and you try to
| climb K2, you're selfish and I feel sorry for your kids. If
| you're a single guy who wants to risk death, go for it.
| LandR wrote:
| K2 doesn't kill 25% of people who climb it.
|
| It has a historic fatality ratio of 1 death for every 4
| summits. If you have 100 people try to climb it in a
| season, 4 summits and 1 death you have 25% summit to
| death ratio, but 99 out of the 100 people survived.
|
| Last year it looks like it had 175 climbers, ~50 summits,
| and 2 deaths. 2023 had over 100 summits and 1 death.
| rufus_foreman wrote:
| Thanks for the clarification.
| ghaff wrote:
| You can mitigate to greater or lesser. Kate Matrosova was
| actually well prepared when she died a few years ago. She
| should simply have gone out in that forecast
|
| On the other hand, you get into the bigger mountains and
| it's a lot harder. To time the weather and other dangers.
| temp_praneshp wrote:
| In the context of the article, instead of your parent
| comment, this sounds like a weak excuse. Is driving to the
| Huascaran mountains (and it's ilk) more dangerous than
| climbing it?
| lazide wrote:
| Have you driven in the Andes? It is likely _far_ more
| dangerous driving there. Certainly far more deaths.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| That's a classic ridiculous HN pedantic missing the point
| statistical response.
|
| I suppose on a basis of deaths per vertical meter travelled,
| ascending slopes is probably safer than even air travel.
| pfdietz wrote:
| > I suppose on a basis of deaths per vertical meter
| travelled, ascending slopes is probably safer than even air
| travel.
|
| No, by orders of magnitude.
| carabiner wrote:
| No, stop that. That's bullshit and Will Gadd calls it out:
|
| https://www.instagram.com/realwillgadd/p/CdoHJjag_QC/
| blackguardx wrote:
| Will Gadd and his friends are at an elite level. They would
| call most mountain climbing done in the continental US,
| summits like Mt. Baldy, "hiking."
| crazygringo wrote:
| Do you have a citation for that?
|
| In my personal experience, that does not seem true. I have a
| number of friends who have been seriously injured climbing,
| e.g. from large rocks falling from above, presumably loosened
| by water freezing and expanding over the winter.
|
| I don't know anyone who's gotten into an accident on their
| trip to or from climbing. Car accidents are already pretty
| rare overall, and driving to/from climbing is a teensy
| fraction of your overall driving.
|
| Mountains are inherently dangerous, unpredictable places in
| ways that roads usually aren't.
| bratwurst3000 wrote:
| honestly your comment and others are condescending as hell. For
| sure there are risks that the best planing cant safe one from
| but this is live. Many sports and adventures are dangerous.
| Doing a shitload of cocaine or alcohol is way more dangerous
| and shitty towards society then mountaineering. I am
| mountaineering and i come from a family of mountaineers. I
| asure you usually those people are very aware of what they are
| doing and the risk and they do every possible to minimize risk
| to the least possible. Dying is if you are professional and
| self conscious very very rare. It still happens but this is
| live and sitting there behind you screen and judging people
| while , I am certain, not beeing conscious enough to grasp what
| you do that could kill you everyday. Are you driving a car? how
| do you prepare to net get killed in a road accident? you know
| it could still happen.
|
| problem that death numbers are so high is because of social
| media idiots doing it for the fame and not beeing prepared
| while beeing 100% douches.
|
| And mountaineering. Its amazing. Why people do it? I do it
| because i feel so little there and the world so big. In the
| mountains your mind gets activated because you are not anymore
| the king of the city but a little animal in big nature. beeing
| on a summit is something that the human mind cant grasp. its
| feeling endless beauty. Your friends are so close to you and
| you did something amazing together and your body and minds
| knows it. its like fucking. there is a nature to its greatness.
| Also all the technical stuff and planning is awesome and i love
| every moment of it. So i hope you understand there is something
| about it.
| snowwrestler wrote:
| If you liked this story, you might like the documentary "Torn,"
| which was made by children of Alex Lowe, a top mountaineer who
| disappeared in an avalanche and then his body was found years
| later.
| philxor wrote:
| Read this a couple weeks ago when it came out. Great story, but
| yeah when having kids and a family takes another sort of person
| to still want to pursue those adventures. But some cannot just
| sit still and feel the need to push their endeavors to the
| highest limit.
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(page generated 2025-05-03 23:00 UTC)