High Sierra Topix

My comments were not intended to assess "blame". First, this should not have happened as part of an organized group with well informed leadership. That is not to "blame" the leaders. Simply my conjecture that the leaders were not experienced/informed enough. What we all did as youth, on our own, with plenty of risk, is not the issue. Second, I am a mother. Regardless of how stupid my kids were (and lived to tell), if such a tragedy happened (yes it IS a tragedy), it would have broken my heart. We do not know the details, and may never.

I have cooled my feet in the apparently calm pool above Nevada Falls. It is deceptive. At the upper end of this pool, you seem far from the falls. There are many danger signs posted in Yosemite. One is posted at the top of Tenaya Canyon that basically says you will die of you go down this canyon. I lead a trip of six people (mountaineers) down this canyon. We had experience and equipment needed to do it safely. I spent a considerable time researching the route and timing it late in the Fall when water was really low. I do not feel what we did was risky, or at least any more risky than the average technical climbs we always did. As backpackers we all take risks, but with proper information and experience we are able to mitigate the risk to an acceptable level. I do not feel this church group or the individual had such experience or information.

No, campers, it's still sad no matter how many signs are around -- and I've pulled a number of bodies from the base of that very waterfall, almost all of them males in their teens or early 20s. Urban types usually know at an early age not to run out from behind parked cars. If a kid who's been warned does so and gets hit is he at fault? Is it somehow not sad and so the subject of critical talk about responsibility etc.? Same is true of wild settings. People just don't know. The guy's 19. It was sad.

g.

Yes. Thanks for the perspective, George.

I agree with GB 100%. we all did stuff that was risky in our youth. I vow to not use stupid on this forum again. Now it's "unfortunate."

We all have different perspectives. George, you signed up for recovery as part of your job description. I can see that as a "sad" perspective. I've only seen 3 people die in my lifetime. None were at the bottom of a fall, and that would be really bad, given the drop.

It's unfortunate the 19 year old didn't appreciate that soaking his legs would be enough to cool down.

The part i'm most excited about is no one else tried to jump in and save him. That would have been catastrophic as we've seen before.

It's probably worse on his family.

On another website, someone made a good suggestion regarding assistance to people in danger of going over the falls in Yosemite: why not have life preservers attached to ropes above the falls? One could then give someone in the water a good chance of being saved from going over, without endangering themselves.

Given the force of the water once you get into the main current and the speed at which things happen, I think the idea of throwing in a floating devise, may not work, or worse, pull in another person. Perhaps farther upstream the idea may work. Given the hordes of people that are at the top of Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls and the tempting swimming "pools" perhaps the park service needs to patrol those areas more. I have never seen a ranger up there.

Just in the last week they have pulled two bodies out of the Sacramento River - swimmers who got pulled under. There even is a regulation that children are required to wear PFD, free PFD's are hung up all around, yet it is ignored. I think people are really uninformed about the power of water.

No way on the safety equipment.
Having any would imply a level responsibility to maintain it and "replace" it.
Stationing a ranger to protect people from themselves is another bad idea,
so is installation of a permanent safety cable across the flow.

Both of those ideas Artrock have liability written all over it.

When it comes to flowing water, I doubt many people have much if any experience even many of those who hike in our mountains. Sure there are a minority of we hard core backpackers that do have considerable experience fording cold streams but there are far more that do not. The reason is rivers in California in this modern era tend to be cold often very cold all year long which inhibits ever getting in. And that includes fording. Heck even among we backpackers, the majority are absolute wimps about quick dunks even after long sweaty dusty days on the trail and instead they brag about how many days they've endured without a shower.

A prime reason our rivers are so cold is because most river basins are behind networks of multiple hydro power dams that release water from their dam face bottoms in order to generate highest power. Down on the bottom where the coldest water sinks to. In the 1800s California still had many free flowing rivers that by late summer after snow melt wanes and reaching foothill elevations were a pleasant dip. Thus it was much more common for people in late summer to recreate along our low elevation Sierra rivers. In that way they learned how powerful river currents can be. Today there are few parks where people can actually swim in our rivers hence ignorance.

no dam above there, SSS. what is your point? And please be first person, and specific.