Situational awareness. Distance, time on route, local conditions. It's often an equation that appears dead-simple after the fact(s). Among people who continue to hike higher above tree line as the afternoon thunderstorms are building, there are those who just don't grasp the potential for havoc, those who do and think they'll be fine because they believe they understand the risk, those who do and think they can be quick enough to beat it up and down, those who do and think their need to go up crowds out the idea of turning back, those who do and think their weather reading skills argue they'll probably be fine, etc. etc. and those who just decide that, today, at this hour, in these conditions, the prudent choice is to find a different route. Deciding to take a scenic route in winter, in the mountains, knowing that it will be dark long before you arrive, over unfamiliar road & territory, in a less-than-ideal vehicle...with a family. It's not condemning the adults in the car to ask what they thought the 'pay off' would be? Scenery? A less boring drive? A great story to tell the kid(s) when they got old enough to appreciate it? At what risk? When Usenet Groups were how many Backcountry enthusiasts used to connect and share information, one of the common queries was for people some 20+ hours away by car, to ask others for trail reports and what the conditions were regarding snow pack on some fairly isolated and eclectically chosen trails. Often, replies would be very detailed and reassuring. But, relatively anonymous. And I remember clearly one of the older hands on the Group repeatedly posting warnings about relying on internet replies to posts about exceptionally specific, localized conditions...."That detailed report about snowpack on the Wind River Trail #ABCD could have been posted by a 16 year old in Boca Raton who has never been north of Atlanta or west of Memphis...." I think about this every time I hear about people using GPS directions that 'tell them' to turn left or turn right. The GPS isn't smart or dumb. It is indifferent. It says what it says what it says. But you're the one who turns off the Interstate and heads into the mountains with dusk falling on the road less taken. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Dec 06 2009 - 10:34:13 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:38 PDT