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RE: RE: [pct-l] Into Thin Air and The Climb



Let me start off by saying that i certainly DO NOT regard myself as an expert at either the PCT or High Altitude mountaineering, as I have not completed the PCT nor climbed above 18,800 ft'.

Having said that, I can see where anyone could learn from the mistakes made by all the team members and leader of the 1996 Everest disasters.  However, I think that a comparison between Everest in 1996 (survival at 26,000' coupled with 100+mph winds and temperatures that will freeze exposed flesh solid in minutes) and the PCT is a bit like comparinging apples and oranges.  I know that people do die on the PCT, but with the possible exception of the lack of h2o in the desert, I just don't think the physical demands are anywhere close to equal.  We can and should learn from those who lost their lives on Everest, but to compare the riggors of the PCT to what they went through in 1996 is underestimating the severity of life(or death) at high altitude.


...my 2 cents.

peace and happy new year,
Dude in TX (soon to be CA! yea!)

>From: "Reynolds, WT" <reynolds@ilan.com>
>To: "'CMountainDave@aol.com'" <CMountainDave@aol.com>, pct-l@backcountry.net
>Subject: RE: [pct-l] Into Thin Air and The Climb
>Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 14:53:06 -0800
>
>My view is that these books have everything to do with the PCT.
>
>What I learned from "Into Thin Air" is that the leader must protect himself
>so to be ready for the emergency. The leader must not "falter near the
>summit due to exhaustion" because then the party is leaderless. If the
>leader tries to do everything he may wind up unable to do the job that only
>he can do when everyone is depending upon his leadership and judgment --
>make the hard decisions needed to avoid/overcome emergencies.
>
>This is a lesson that everyone who takes novices into the semi-wilderness
>needs to consider.  For example, if you wear yourself out while taking a
>six-year-old on an extended backpack, who will make the decisions to protect
>that child's life when an emergency hits.
>
>Lets go a step further. If a thruhiker wears himself out in the process of
>thruhiking, who will make the decisions to protect/save his/her life when an
>emergency hits? 
>
>I have read many journals of thruhikers. Just reading their journals I could
>see many problems that were easily solveable but the thruhiker simply didn't
>recognize either the problem or the solution. However, I was "just reading
>their journals". I wasn't walking 30 miles a day on snow, crossing rivers up
>to my ears and subsisting on a diet of cardboard and corn pasta. I wasn't
>exausted. They were.
>
>When you thruhike the PCT, particulary if you go ultralight, you focus on
>hiking as opposed to camping. To reduce weight many, even most, of the items
>that make a camp comfortable and enjoyable are sacraficed. That makes it
>hard to stop. You can't relax in your tent and read your book because you
>brought neither. You can't catch a couple of Goldens in the stream and have
>a fresh trout dinner because you left the frying pan, fishing rod and even a
>decent stove home to save weight. You can't put on clean clothes and just
>relax in your chair because you don't have a change of clothes. And a chair?
>Unthinkable! 
>
>So you walk, and you walk, and you walk....doing 30 miles a day when the
>most you have done previously was 10. Your body rebells and you are
>suprised. Your feet turn into one big blister and you wonder why. This party
>is hungry, dirty, tired, cold and hurting. It's time to make some hard
>decisions but the leader of this expidition has exausted himself. This party
>is now leaderless.
>
>Let's look at a PCT disaster:
>
[ *** too many quoted lines.  automatically truncated *** ]

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To:            "'Ken Powers'" <kdpo@pacbell.net>, PCT List <PCT-L@backcountry.net>