DEATH AND INJURY ON THE SLIPPERY SLOPES
View From The Street
Don DuPay
There's a killer out there! She has taken your fathers, sons and daughters. She has killed many, a serial killer if you will...and we all know where she is. Yet we will let her kill again, beckoning the foolish and fool hardy alike. Her curves and slopes are too alluring for many to resist. The clouds and mists hide her rocky crag's and treacherous pitfalls.
Mt. Hood and Rainier are "attractive nuisances" to use the legal term for things that attract then kill or maim. Like Niagara falls is an attractive nuisance. We all know that those that maintain this kind of nuisance are often held liable for damages and injuries. Who then is liable for the deaths caused by those magnificent peaks? Is it the forest service? It couldn't be for certainly they would never allow a climber to climb alone or never allow anyone to climb with out an emergency locator and cell phone, or climb in bad weather...would they? Yes they have and yes they still do.
Recently more than one person was killed climbing. Big mountain rocks fell on them. My condolences to all who have been left behind by someone who couldn't resist the urge to climb these peaks and disappear for ever into the mists of frozen hell.
Mountain climbing must be a very selfish endeavor, not to care about those who might be left behind, or care about those who then must endanger their own lives in a search. There is certainly no care for the taxpayers who stand the cost of most searches. Yes, there are volunteers who will risk their lives. Certainly no care for them, but out local air force rescue choppers certainly get paid and the sheriff officers that lead the rescue get paid, and the forest service officers get paid. I've even seen Coast Guard choppers rescuing people from Mt. Hood and Rainier, a long way from their bases at the coast. All and all an expensive situation!!
The deploring number of people killed climbing out mountains should stop. Why can't we take a lesson learned from Niagara Falls? Niagara kills too and for a long time it has been against the law to go over the falls. Why? It's too dangerous! Now when some daredevil goes over the falls the survivors are arrested and the dead...are buried.
How about some common sense rules for our mountains like never go past Timberline Lodge because the mountain is safe viewed only from a distance. But for the moths that can't stay away from the flame...allow no one to climb without an emergency locator. No locator? No go! Cell phones are great too if you are still alive to call anyone. Want to climb by yourself? Sorry no! And while we're at it how about making climbers post a bond sufficient to pay for a week long search. Why should the tax payers get stuck? Perhaps that would sober up those intoxicated with the frozen slopes.
But hey I know some will always climb, fall, get stranded and break their necks. Those folks will need a good non addicting painkiller and medical marijuana will always be here!!!
View From The Street
Don DuPay
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