Another Nevada Falls Tragedy
- frediver
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Re: Another Nevada Falls Tragedy
A leader, one or many, can only lead, not hold everyone's hand !
Was the teenager able to read?
Callous maybe but this sounds like Darwin in action to me.
Was the teenager able to read?
Callous maybe but this sounds like Darwin in action to me.
- rlown
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Re: Another Nevada Falls Tragedy
hmm. there are things wrong in these statements. Agree that the group leader is responsible, but we don't know if there was a waiver. there usually is.maverick wrote:A group leader is responsible for the safety and well being of its members, especially teenagers or younger kids.
...
It is not the parents responsibility to teach water safety, but they should inquire
about the experience of the group leaders who will be taking their children into
a potentially dangerous environment.
Parents are responsible for safety!!! right from birth. It's almost a sin in my book that kids aren't taught to swim. I was in the Y' pool at 3. maybe earlier; memory starts to fade.
Also, at 19, he made his choice. he's an adult. guess he could swim (for a bit).
russ
- whrdafamI?
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Re: Another Nevada Falls Tragedy
Think he was wishing the same thing on the way over? I never view these as tragic accidents either. Sad that he didn't use common sense.
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- maverick
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Re: Another Nevada Falls Tragedy
Let me clarify because I see it was not written clear enough.
Rlown wrote:
hmm. there are things wrong in these statements.
Yes, parents are responsible for safety Russ, what I was referring to was the
waters in the wild, many folks have never had a chance to experience a
big and powerful river such as the Merced during the run off much less
understand the dangers associated with them and therefore teach/warn
their kids about it. And yes, a 19 year old is old enough to reason, but as you
well know not all 19 year olds are the same, maturity wise.
Professional Sierra Landscape Photographer
I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.
Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.
Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
- rlown
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Re: Another Nevada Falls Tragedy
so it's the parks fault?
I don't want to put blame on anyone, other than the party involved. There's nothing to prove, no one to blame. Dead. Gone. Done.
It was a personal choice.
I'll stop now... maybe. no waiver to sign.
I don't want to put blame on anyone, other than the party involved. There's nothing to prove, no one to blame. Dead. Gone. Done.
It was a personal choice.
I'll stop now... maybe. no waiver to sign.
- whrdafamI?
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Re: Another Nevada Falls Tragedy
.done.
Last edited by whrdafamI? on Mon Jun 10, 2013 12:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Better to have it and not need it than it is to need it and not have it!
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- Wandering Daisy
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Re: Another Nevada Falls Tragedy
Even the stupid young do not make a conscious choice to be swept over a waterfall. The young man made a choice to step into and swim in a body of water that did not look dangerous to him. The general public, city kids in particular, are generally oblivious of the dangers of big water. Unless you have experience swimming in powerful rivers, you may not realize there are powerful undercurrents that you do not see on the top. Add to that the cold, which can suck the energy from a swimmer. If you are a leader of a youth group and the youth do not obey your commands, you should not be a leader of a youth group. It seems to me that the leader either was not aware of the danger or was aware and did not exert leadership. I suspect the group may have been a loosy-goosy "lets go see Yosemite" with church "leaders" trained in theological leadership, not wilderness leadership or safety. When you choose to be the leader of a group, you ARE responsible for the groups safety.
I do not think there are many of us who backpack, who have not, some time in the past, made an impulsive bad decision, got ourselves into a pickle and were lucky and managed to escape death. If there really was a "Darwin Award" perhaps I should have received it considering all the stupid things I did in my youth.
I do not think there are many of us who backpack, who have not, some time in the past, made an impulsive bad decision, got ourselves into a pickle and were lucky and managed to escape death. If there really was a "Darwin Award" perhaps I should have received it considering all the stupid things I did in my youth.
- rlown
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Re: Another Nevada Falls Tragedy
most of us need the darwin award.
but at the same time we're alive. hence darwin.
but at the same time we're alive. hence darwin.
- 87TT
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Re: Another Nevada Falls Tragedy
I'm sorry but the first lesson in life is "don't bet your life on it". The 19 year old bet his he was smarter than the people who posted the signs. The first time I went to Kings Canyon Park, the river was running high and a kid drown the week before. I still remember my Dad was going to tie me to a tree just short of the water so I could fish. I was 11 or 12 and I still remember it. Accidents happen all the time but when you're warned it's on you.
- Hobbes
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Another Nevada Falls Tragedy
Is is really possible for one to visit Yosemite, from any country, region or cultural/economic environment, and not be aware of its well earned reputation for beauty & life threatening danger? To say it another way, are not Yosemite's magnificent cliffs & stunning waterfalls its very raison d'être?
I grew up in the Bay area, and my dad made a point of taking our family to Yosemite every spring for a few days a week or so before Memorial day. I seem to recall that everyone on the various trails was certainly cognizant that they were literally flirting with death when the creeks, rivers (Merced) & falls were going full blast. A slip here, a fall there, and that's all she wrote. The effect was, we stood well back on the trail.
Fast forward a few decades, and I took my new, city born & bred wife to the Valley. We went up the Nevada trail, and even though she had never been there before, or had any backcountry experience, she had the same reaction: one mistake, and you're done.
Does a person need to be taught to fear spiders & snakes, or be on the alert in the dark? Some things are simply engrained in our psyche as our reward for having ancestors make the "right" decisions millenia/eons ago.
I grew up in the Bay area, and my dad made a point of taking our family to Yosemite every spring for a few days a week or so before Memorial day. I seem to recall that everyone on the various trails was certainly cognizant that they were literally flirting with death when the creeks, rivers (Merced) & falls were going full blast. A slip here, a fall there, and that's all she wrote. The effect was, we stood well back on the trail.
Fast forward a few decades, and I took my new, city born & bred wife to the Valley. We went up the Nevada trail, and even though she had never been there before, or had any backcountry experience, she had the same reaction: one mistake, and you're done.
Does a person need to be taught to fear spiders & snakes, or be on the alert in the dark? Some things are simply engrained in our psyche as our reward for having ancestors make the "right" decisions millenia/eons ago.
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