Yet another wholly optional death on a tall mountain. A hiker ignored his companions’ concerns and kept going on their own.
I have been fascinated with mountaineering deaths and what motivates climbers to take risks that seem unnecessary. YouTube is full of documentaries where altitude induces an overconfidence and leads people to ignore warnings, all in the desire to “summit.”
The group says two hikers started climbing the mountain late Saturday night and kept going into Sunday. At roughly 3:30 p.m., while they were near the 12,500-foot level, one hiker decided it was safer to turn around and go back down, but the other one kept going.
When the second hiker hadn’t returned by Monday morning, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office was contacted and, SAR says, it began searching using a half-dozen searchers and a California Highway Patrol helicopter.
They spotted the overdue hiker’s body on the mountain’s north face, below the “Final 400” feet from its 14,505 foot summit, SAR says. Mount Whitney is the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states.
I have never attempted to climb a mountain, nor have I been particularly interested in it. I have some suspicion that altitude sickness would knock me out quickly. I am, however, a SCUBA diver, which comes with some similar-seeming risks. Rather than high-altitude edema and a lack of oxygen impairing judgement, SCUBA has nitrogen narcosis and nitrogen loading. One of the first things I was taught, and that has been reinforced by science and training, is that if you feel off at all, call off the dive. There have been many times I’ve said “not this time,” and never regretted it. I would think mountain climbers would have a similar policy: turn around when the first person in their group taps out, and not continue solo up a frozen mountain.
It isn't just that these ego manics kill themselves; they endanger the lives of the search parties while doing so. 😬
It’s often framed as pitting oneself against nature-but nature isn’t competing with anyone, it’s just out there. You can survive it, but you don’t “beat” it.