Deciding against heroism...

[levi]

With only about 4 seasons of Sierra exploration under my belt, I was actually surprised that I could recall numerous times per year that my group turned back (or stopped in place) for safety reasons. A good number were peak bag attempts. Common factors: altitude, snow, routefinding.

Rae Lakes Loop: my wife got sick on the descent from Glen Pass down to Upper Rae Lake (we had procrastinated on eating lunch), and it took a few hours before she was able to get fluids down again. I carried her pack the last 1/4 mile before we found an acceptable place to camp, put her on a sleeping pad while I set up the tent, and slowly helped her recover. We didn't really lose any time on the trip but it was a close call. Big lesson there for dealing with altitude/appetite issues.

Kettle Peak class 2 summit attempt: a group of six of us, with beginner to intermediate experience, hit the trailhead later than planned (8am instead of 6am). We had issues finding a route up to Kettle, and one in the group was really struggling, so we stopped at Ice Lake and turned around. Got some great photos of Incredible Hulk though.

Bear Creek Spire (Ulrich's route) attempt: another group of six, with some climbing experience. Got mired in unexpected chossy Class 5 in the apparent "Cox's Col," before identifying a steadier class 3 ascent to the ridge further north. It was getting late though, 1 hour before turnaround time, and my wife was rattled by the endless unstable talus and some altitude woes, and another in the group had already decided to bail solo back to the trailhead. After a little consultation with my wife I convinced her to turn around with me and the other guy. I almost certainly could've summitted with the remaining 3 (was feeling strong and alert) but it was a good opportunity to test my own ego, group skills, and realistically my marriage (ha ha ha). The guys who summitted got back to the campsite after dark, luckily having reached trail with a little light left... and we had a warm fire waiting for them. I still need to make good on BCS.

Long Lake attempt in Mokelumne/Silver Lake area: 2017 was an insane snow year. A simple backpacking trip mid-July to Long Lake was stymied by endless snow over what was supposed to be a *road* midway along our route, so after wasting 3 hours ascending a sketchy snow-covered ridge and feeling lost in the snowy forest on the other side, we returned to Hidden Lake to enjoy our canned wine. VACATION, DAMMIT.

Middle Palisade attempt: just me and a buddy, too much snow in the traditional class 3 chute. We had a good time doing an out/back trip, camped at Finger Lake, the next morning got close to the 'schrund by the red rocks before agreeing that snow shenanigans on a sustained cl3 route without axe/crampons were uncalled for.

Iceland Lake/Emigrant Wilderness: on our 'shake out the legs' trip in June, before we did Circle of Solitude, I wanted to do a long hike out of Gianelli Cabin TH to Iceland lake, Granite Dome, etc. I misread the topo and didn't heed online beta closely, and we ended up on a beautiful but dead-end shelf below a northerly outlet/waterfall of Iceland Lake. (Should've gone further south, along the west side of the cliffs below the lake) I was having knee pain and it was late, so we camped on the shelf, had the waterfall to ourselves, still bagged Granite Dome on the way out. Iceland Lake itself will be a future reward.

Circle of Solitude variation down Cunningham Creek: my wife convinced my to not try to slide 10 ft down a 60deg dry waterfall to get out of jail free from cliffing out... nuff said. We Class 3'd with heavy packs about 75ft back upslope, traversed to find more reasonable steep terrain, and made it out unscathed.

Jeremy Jones once admitted that he occasionally bails on routes even when he's feeling good, just so he doesn't get cocky, and I think about this whenever I'm attempting my comparatively pedestrian goals in the Sierra no matter the season

[creekfeet]

I'm far too stubborn and prideful to ever full-on turn around, although I'm not opposed to changing my route on a whim if things are getting sketchy. I must say, no matter how miserable it was in the moment, I look back much more fondly on trips where I got myself into a little trouble than on trips where everything went according to plan.

[Wandering Daisy]

"there is nothing heroic about taking risks in the wilderness". I would reword that too- it is about excessive risks, not risk per se. We all take risks we deem acceptable in the wilderness. You look at the situation, assess the risk, mitigate it as much as possible, then either do it or not. This happens all the time, several times a day, when you backpack. We are so used to most of the minor risks that we do not even think much about them anymore (but a newbie would). EVERYONE has their line in the sand. If you have never turned back, you simply have not reached that unacceptable risk yet.

I have turned back many more times climbing than backpacking, because climbing's inherent dangers are just a lot higher to begin with. More often than not, I can detour around the risk when backpacking. My backpack turn-arounds have had little to do with risk. I turned back from States Lake because of swarms of mosquitoes. I never even got a foot on the trail on one trip, because I forgot to pack my tent and rain was forecast. I have cut trips a few days short to bail out because of weather. I have done a lot of detouring or skipping a section if I do not have the proper equipment (mainly snow when I decide not to take crampons) or if I simply run out of time. I have postponed the starting dates of several trips if the weather forecast was bad. I am an obsessive planner, so I do a lot of risk assessment during trip planning, thus avoiding a lot of those situations once out.

[giantbrookie]

For me I've turned around several times when I thought things were getting more hazardous than my tastes or for other safety reasons.

1. (Sierra Club trip) 1969(?) aborted trip out of Kennedy meadows because of broken bridge that would have crossed raging torrent.

(other than the one above, the rest are all trips I was leading)

1. 1976 Aborted climb of Mt Dade when thunderstorms closed in. Turned back about 400' below summit. Climbed it the next day bright and early (and added Abbot).

2. 1980 attempting winter climb of W Ridge Mt Montgomery all the way from Hwy 6 (hiked from the Benton town dump). Thought it was getting too late, so I turned around at 12900 foot level (summit is 13441). I still had some fairly difficult climbing to do and as it was I ended up hiking the last hour or so in darkness back to the car.

3. 1987 Bad route choice had me attempting to finish climb of W Ridge Mt Emerson on the N Face side. Very loose rock with lots of exposure. I turned back perhaps about 20 vertical feet below the summit because I did not want to trust my life to some dicey holds for a climactic mantle move.

4. 1991 Mt Shasta attempt one. Turned back at Red Banks as it began to snow.

5. 1991 Mt Shasta attempt two (weekend after attempt one). Turned back at Misery Hill (~13900 very close to summit) as it began to snow and threaten white out conditions.

6. 1991 Cancelled climb of Basin Mtn because I broke my ankle the day before (was camped at Horton Lake).

7. 1995 Turned back on early season dayhike to Spanish Lakes owing to first creek crossing looking too dicey.

8. 1996 Cancelled over-the-crest hike from Horton Lakes over the top (of Four Gables) into Humphreys Basin because of thunderstorms over crest.

9. 2002 aborted long dayhike from Colby Pass area to Lake 11482. Felt I was physically failing (was suffering from a cold and amazingly bad blisters).

10. 2003 aborted climb of Mt Stewart from near Kaweah Gap; turned back because of thunderstorms; not sure how far below summit we were but still had a ways to go.

11. 2003 (same trip as above) twice cancelled planned attempts on Mt Kaweah because of thunderstorms

[giantbrookie]

Iceland Lake/Emigrant Wilderness: on our 'shake out the legs' trip in June, before we did Circle of Solitude, I wanted to do a long hike out of Gianelli Cabin TH to Iceland lake, Granite Dome, etc. I misread the topo and didn't heed online beta closely, and we ended up on a beautiful but dead-end shelf below a northerly outlet/waterfall of Iceland Lake. (Should've gone further south, along the west side of the cliffs below the lake) I was having knee pain and it was late, so we camped on the shelf, had the waterfall to ourselves, still bagged Granite Dome on the way out. Iceland Lake itself will be a future reward.

That sounds a bit similar to a place I was at going to Iceland in 1991. It looked to have no way out but there was this diagonally-ascending ledge that surmounted the cliff band above the shelf. It was hard to tell from the bottom whether the ledge would really go but it did. Iceland L. is a pretty nice place, although I don't think there are fish in that lake anymore as there were back in '91.

[balzaccom]

Last time I was at Iceland lake, about four years ago? There were fish in Ridge Lake and the little lake between Ridge and Iceland, but I didn't see any fish in Iceland Lake. Beautiful spot, though.

We came up through Summit Creek from Kennedy Meadows. That's an easy walk up

[SSSdave]

Just now reading OP on this thread as "heroism" as I suspected was maybe about saving others in trouble but then unwisely getting into trouble oneself. Those stories of people dying after jumping in a river to save someone that fell in. Ok so this is actually about not being too stubborn in the face dangers or difficulty to turn around. Very different.

WD summed it up well. The more one goes off trail and the more one's routes are on steep slopes or dangerous streams or a list of other difficult and dangerous terrain, the more one faces these choices. But it is all part of the game, the challenge. You play a good game over the long term and have a chance to be bragging about it all as a senior. A lot of things scare me and that is good. I actually document such things in my website trip features because they are interesting reads. Weather with snow, cold, wind, lightning, is often an important issue and fools are obviously many, some due to ignorance while others are simply unwisely stubborn or stupid because they don't stop and make reasonable assessments.

Off trail, I am constantly deciding which way is easiest down to step to step foot placement. Being wise is why I am still here. Sometimes the choice is rather marginal and one weighs how much effort and loss of goal is involved versus the difficulty or danger of turning around. Here is a well documented example in 2017 of where solo I decided to not turn around and rather negotiate steep slabs with exposure:

http://www.davidsenesac.com/2017_Trip_C ... .html#aug7

On that same backpacking trip, I had declined to cross too strong Mono Creek into Second Recess and due to storms decided to base camp the whole time down in the safe forest in upper Laural Creek versus following a more elaborate day to day itinerary while thunderstorms raged daily. Earlier in late spring 2017, had decided on my Styx Pass backpack to not follow my planned itinerary because once up to 8k, I found areas I expected to venture into, still had more snow than I was able to glean off of satellite images:

http://www.davidsenesac.com/2017_Trip_C ... html#jun15

Another thing I do is challenge dense vegetation routes that are not so much dangerous but rather can be awkwardly difficult to monkey through. A couple months ago during fall leaf work went right through this clone aspen grove carrying my bulky camera gear that was underlain by small talus with every few feet a battle. But I did reach a rock outcrop enough above the trees to manage a shot:


Just 2 weeks ago fighting through rising dense ceanothus in a Rim Fire zone and not finding an expected deserted road, I turned around while later noting on satellite images I was probably just 100 yards from reaching the road.

Sometimes my decisions have not been wise and I live and learn like during this epic adventure into a part of confusing Death Valley badlands where thirsty hours later in the dark, stumbled back out onto the highway. I learned that day, I really needed to carry more water and that those intricate badlands wash labyrinths with dry fall cliffs were often impossible to assess beforehand with 7.5' topographic maps. And one is often faced with one way situations where choices to continue exclude being able to reverse a route if further along a route does not go.

http://www.davidsenesac.com/2016_Trip_C ... html#mar19

[Lumbergh21]

So when have you chosen discretion over valor?

Do you really want a list?

Everybody decides to turn around some fraction of the time so there would be hundreds, probably thousands of incidences among the few who regularly post here. It's the normal thing; the prudent, intelligent, rational thing. It's the trivial solution. Exceptions are much, much more interesting.

I have stopped short of a planned camping spot many times due to thunder and lightening. I have decided against continuing up peaks due to equipment failure even when currently ahead of schedule. I chose last August to turn around at a snow field because I had no traction devices and the snow field ended in a lake. I could go on.