Globe Article and VFTT Thread

[Gorque]

I can see the auto road being closed in June because of a cold spring and therefor no vehicular traffic being on it, but I've always viewed it as a quick and easy way down by foot to safety and shelter, especially after Memorial Day, when compared to some of the other more direct and therefor steeper trails in area, which could become treacherous in those conditions.

*whew* That was one looong sentence.

[KD Talbot]

Someone with the ability to write a very detailed and concise letter should write the editor of the Globe and see if a more sobering view of Mt W. could be published. Although, if it's not as exciting as this fathers story of his "victory over the elements" than I doubt it would be published.

How's this?

To the Editor:
>
Steve Jermanok missed an opportunity in Mt. Washington Turns a
> Cold, Wet Eye on Boys' Rite of Passage (August 26, 2007) to display
> humility in the face of that mountain’s great power to destroy lives in an
> instant. I suspect his article started out to do just that, but somehow
> the more prominent tone was one of arrogance. The three adults in his
> group assumed the same attitude that 139 dead people assumed before them –
> that they were somehow better equipped to challenge Mother Nature. I
> wonder what their plan was to protect the three children who trusted the
> adults to make good judgments. I know from Steve’s other work that his
> children are experienced hikers, but this too, did not come through in
> this article. What probably started out as a cautionary tale was edited into
> one in which an unwitting reader is left with an ambivalent regard for a
> beautiful but potentially deadly mountain. I expect better from The
> Globe.
>
> Sincerely,
> John Hansen
> Member,
> Pemigewasset Search and Rescue Team
> Franconia, New Hampshire


KDT

[billysinc]

One thing that strikes me wrong about one of the comments made. Someone felt that it's ok to put children into a potentially bad situation to "toughen" them up. Oddly enough this same poster would probably be the most critical should something bad have occurred.

That's thought number one.

Thought number two is you're talking about fairly young kids. Now granted kids are pretty resilient and generally pretty agile. However what if something happened to one of the adults? Could those kids have saved themselves as well as an injured adult in deteriorating conditions?

Granted none of us were there so we don't know exactly what these folks were faced with. Myself as well as many of you have been in poor conditions. Sometimes you continue, sometimes you don't. Personally I know my limits and don't mind admitting when I've reached them. Several years back we were doing a hike in the Great Gulf that would take us up the headwall. As we were close to starting up the headwall the weather turned nasty. Could we have made it? Possibly but we decided to hunker down and wait. We waited in our tents until the following day. A decision I've made before and I wouldn't hesitate to make again. Sure we could have been a bunch of hero's and kept going or we could have been just a bunch of dead hero's.

[Bill O]

A review of the "grand list" here:

http://www.mountwashington.com/deaths/index.html

indicates that its not really fair to toss around the number 139 for weather related fatalities on Mount Washington.

I don't think the 8 people who died on the Cog assumed they were better equipped to handle the bad weather.

Here's some highlights:

8 - Plane crashes
1 - Murder
1 - Train engine explosion
4 - Slideboard Accidents
2 - Car accidents (includes a carriage accident, those are like cars)
1 - Stroke (maybe it was related to stress in bad weather)
5 - Drowned (ironically most occured in the "Dry" River)
7 - Skiing accidents (I won't rule out weather here)

"Killed by fall" seems to be the leader. That's another tossup. Most probably had nothing to do with weather conditions.

[Bill O]

One thing that strikes me wrong about one of the comments made. Someone felt that it's ok to put children into a potentially bad situation to "toughen" them up. Oddly enough this same poster would probably be the most critical should something bad have occurred.

Who wants to toughen up the kids? Somebody on this forum?

We still haven't determined the actual weather conditions for this day. Which is an easy task should we determine the day they climbed.

[Gorque]

Late June with a temp of 37 and a wind-chill in the teens is all that I've seen mentioned.

[billysinc]

Who wants to toughen up the kids? Somebody on this forum?

We still haven't determined the actual weather conditions for this day. Which is an easy task should we determine the day they climbed.

No, that was on the VFTT forum.

[Steve M]

Actually, it was taken from the article, the direct quote: "He pointed to the temperature at summit, which read 37 degrees Fahrenheit with a windchill factor in the teens."

[billysinc]

actually I was referring to post number 6 from the thread on VFTT

actual quote

I say thumbs up to this guy for not being such a wimp and toughening up those 3 kids a bit.

[Steve M]

Sorry, it's sometimes hard to keep track of what people are referring to when there are more than one question or thought line running.