shibumiseeker
Grandmaster
I define a misadventure as something that you do that turns out bad, that you could have avoided.
I was on a body recovery this weekend for two young men who tried rappelling in a waterfall in a cave:
RN-T.com - 2 Florida students found dead in Walker County cave
I was at a rescue board meeting there when the call came out. Initially we were expecting to just have to help them climb back up. I found them hanging from their ropes on a ledge 40' above the bottom. We got them to the the bottom in about 10 minutes, a very fast time.
These kids (18 and 20) were not ready for the environment they were in. One got in trouble and the second one tried to go and help him. When I am teaching vertical work I stress repeatedly that just because you can learn to rappel and climb a rope in about 10 minutes and you'll probably be fine 90% of the time, the biggest danger is that it takes a lot longer to learn how to avoid getting into trouble and even longer to learn how to get yourself out of trouble. Yeah, it's an awesome rush to rappel down a cliff or pit, but most people are taught by people who have no real clue as to what they are doing, and then will never put the time to learn how to do it properly. I can take a novice and get them a chance to do some cool stuff, but then when they go to the hardware store for rope or order it from a climbing catalogue and try to do it on their own they are taking their lives into their own hands because what they ignore is the fact that I was standing there ready to get them out of trouble, and then when they take what little they know and try to teach someone else, it's a recipe for tragedy. I've seen it over and again.
This is true of just about every technical skill that can get you injured or killed if you do them improperly, yet only a few percent of people will take the time and effort to learn them beyond the bare minimum basics, and then many will consider themselves experts because they have mad skillz most people don't have.
RIP kids. Most of us are lucky to survive our own misadventures. Sometimes we don't.
I was on a body recovery this weekend for two young men who tried rappelling in a waterfall in a cave:
RN-T.com - 2 Florida students found dead in Walker County cave
I was at a rescue board meeting there when the call came out. Initially we were expecting to just have to help them climb back up. I found them hanging from their ropes on a ledge 40' above the bottom. We got them to the the bottom in about 10 minutes, a very fast time.
These kids (18 and 20) were not ready for the environment they were in. One got in trouble and the second one tried to go and help him. When I am teaching vertical work I stress repeatedly that just because you can learn to rappel and climb a rope in about 10 minutes and you'll probably be fine 90% of the time, the biggest danger is that it takes a lot longer to learn how to avoid getting into trouble and even longer to learn how to get yourself out of trouble. Yeah, it's an awesome rush to rappel down a cliff or pit, but most people are taught by people who have no real clue as to what they are doing, and then will never put the time to learn how to do it properly. I can take a novice and get them a chance to do some cool stuff, but then when they go to the hardware store for rope or order it from a climbing catalogue and try to do it on their own they are taking their lives into their own hands because what they ignore is the fact that I was standing there ready to get them out of trouble, and then when they take what little they know and try to teach someone else, it's a recipe for tragedy. I've seen it over and again.
This is true of just about every technical skill that can get you injured or killed if you do them improperly, yet only a few percent of people will take the time and effort to learn them beyond the bare minimum basics, and then many will consider themselves experts because they have mad skillz most people don't have.
RIP kids. Most of us are lucky to survive our own misadventures. Sometimes we don't.
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