I mean I know what he did was wrong, but who hasn’t wanted to sucker punch the elderly? Like at the bank today, the kindly old man counting his savings, loose change, taking 10 minutes. HURRY THE FUCK UP YOU GEEZER! Just saying, the thought crossed my mind.

Claim your prize at customer service on your way out the door, Jeff.

Hell, even in decently sized parks that have cell phone coverage (SNP, Smokies, etc), once you call in an emergency, it’s still likely a couple of hours before help will arrive due to terrain and access. It’s why I recommend anyone with a serious interest in spending time outdoors take the Wilderness First Aid class…

I was unaware of it, but after reading this thread I think some people really don’t know that there are places you can go in this country where 911 isn’t much of an option. I mean, sure you can try and pull out your phone and it doesn’t hurt to do so, but getting emergency services to truly remote areas even if a call…

Rich white kids from the mid-Atlantic and coastal south.

I imagine he, due to his profession, was well aware of how long a person can live buried in an avalanche. He was also aware that by the time help arrived she would already have died, and so he searched himself until he knew he was just searching for a body.

What help was he supposed to call for? Do you know the number for the mountaineering wizards who will bring a dead person back to life?

Seriously. I just read 7000 words on mountain climbers and loved it.

Unsurprising since you apparently can’t read, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that you’ve misused the word “posit.”

Yeah, I’m also at a loss to understand others’ inability to grasp the psychological trauma here.

I know Kinja is typicallly a forum for jokesof varying degrees of wit, but just wanted to say kudos on this profile/obit, Patrick.

Did you read the whole story including the quote from him at the bottom? He was clearly already struggling with losing multiple friends to climbing. I think losing his GF was the proverbial last straw.

It says more about your reading ability.

As Zombie says, they probably estimated the risk as they were traversing to be essentially zero, or figured they’d get themselves sorted and harnessed and whatnot on the next ridge, after they stopped for a snack, etc. Wrong decision = tragedy = survivor guilt, plus recent emotional trauma. All these questions racing…

If I’m interpreting the story correctly, the slide was 300' long, 150' wide, and 1-2' deep. That’s a lot of snow cruising down a mountainside. More than enough to kill.

People die in 0' deep avalanches when they fall into tree wells. It only takes a couple minutes. If your limbs are totally immobilized there’s nothing you can do. Your breath will melt the snow around your face and then it’ll freeze into a little ice tomb that builds up CO2.

Without a beacon, finding someone by…

IMO, I don’t think 911 is even relevant here, and I don’t know why the article brings it up. It’s strange that he didn’t tell authorities at all about the incident; I can presume he made his decision very shortly after hiking out. (presuming one’s mental state in such situations makes me an asshole, but so be it)

Really? Seems like horrible accident-suicide to me.

He knew where the avalanche debris zone was. He just couldn’t pinpoint her exact location under it. She had an avalanche transceiver, but it was switched off and stowed in her pack, since they were still on approach. That’s not a great idea, but I admit I’ve done the same thing many times. Fucking horrible story.

Ugh. I respect the game, but this one just didn’t land for me.