And today's Darwin Award goes to:
Father and son get stuck on popular 14er prompting 15-hour rescue mission
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And today's Darwin Award goes to:
Father and son get stuck on popular 14er prompting 15-hour rescue mission
Look up : Hard landing at Granite Dome. My favorite. One helicopter rescuing another one in a verrrry precarious position.
That's amazing.
Here's today's idiocy:
Man's seizures at 14er summit prompt rescue highlighting often-overlooked risk
It's endless. Here's another one. I've got to stop reading the newspaper.
Out-of-state teens stuck overnight in precarious area of notorious 14er after taking 'shortcut'
Hmmm ... that looks remarkably similar to the standard mile-long knife edge route up Mt Russell - one of our 14-teeners. Class 3 the whole way, but with no latitude for error, plus a difficult approach. It's claimed quite a number of lives. And that's the easiest route.
Guess we've derailed White Sands. That's probably more like Death Valley, where people wander off without sufficient water and get disoriented, or their vehicle breaks down on some remote road, and they aren't found for months, or ever.
I don't deserve to be too harsh about all this. I sure learned a lot of things the hard way, both in the mountains and in the desert, when I was a teenager. It's a wonder any of us survived the learning curve.
I did a road trip to White Sands maybe 8 years ago. I parked in one of the little lots, grabbed my 4x5 gear and walked up the dunes. There were people everywhere near the parking places so had to walk and walk farther for a shot. Then it started getting dark… so I made my way back to my car except it wasn’t there. Wrong lot! So I wandered around holding a lot of stuff looking for my car. These little lots are scattered around they looked more or less the same but none had my car. The park is unlit. Walking around in pitch blackness a kind soul stopped to ask if I needed help. He drove around until I saw my car. Whew! Thank you life saver! So best to do a tag your car with google map but maybe there wouldn’t be any cell service in the desert.
Get a Garmin handheld GPS. Then mark where your car is parked so you can find it whether in WHite SAnds desert or in the forest some place where there;s no cell phone service as the GPS runs off satellites and is available everywhere. There are also apps that you can use on your cellphone. You don't need cellphone service to work.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rayt
I'd hate to be battery dependent. Garmin once funded a major expedition to a yet unexplored section of the high Karakoram Range which my nephew participated in. All of that satellite communications stuff failed, and a couple of the Sherpas had gone snowblinded, lost on remote glaciers. Remarkably, they were found still alive by the climbers themselves. The technology has since greatly improved. But even rescue helicopter pilots in this State are expected to be able to navigate via landmarks. It's hard for an experienced person to get lost if you have recognizable peaks and canyons around you. But out in dense flat woods, among seemingly endless dunes, during a blizzard, or under forest fire smoke conditions, it's another story.
Garmin style devices are getting more popular; but that's the whole problem - rescue services get tied up for non-emergency requests - hikers just worn out, or with a belly ache due to eating the wrong food at high altitude. During one of the last severe fires, they had a list over 500 people long that they couldn't do a thing about due to lack of visibility and unsafe flying conditions.
Sounds like you are now ready for your NEXT great adventure -- The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rayt
Attachment 260842
SeeBee1999, from one person who is never on here anymore to another, don't listen to the negative people. Just go and do what photographers are supposed to do - take photos. To me, if you can't find a great photo to take there, you also couldn't find one at the seashore, in a forest, in a jungle, on the moon, in a landfill.....anywhere else. Photo ops are where you find them. White Sands is a GREAT place, I lived in Las Cruces for 10 years, and still love returning there for a 2-4 hr visit. You don't need a lot of time, just find a vista and shoot it. Enjoy your trip and hope you get some great shots.
Two of mine from last time:
https://live.staticflickr.com/7508/1...de87ec41_k.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/8623/1...d07dd75e_h.jpg