In light of the recent death on Mt Hood the general public has been given its yearly news fix for climbing. It is small wonder that the reaction of the general public to this sad progression has been peppered with harsh criticism of those involved in addition to well intentioned ignorance.
How often do we see any reflection of the lifestyle and pursuit of climbing ( I am intentionally refraining from using the term "hobby") in the mainstream media unless it is accompanied by some gross morbidity. At this point, sensationalism and rash judgments are left to be made by viewers-- and why not? Who is out there to publicly set the record straight if not the media?
Yes, this means that a few ludicrous car commercials, music videos or insurance plugs which attempt to sell their completely unrelated products through misrepresentations are not sufficient. Climbing is not hiking; climbing is not a death wish either and should not be portrayed as such simply because there are few who are in a position to correct erroneous reporting.
Due to the aforementioned disconnect between the general public and the concepts inherent to climbing there has been an outcry of sorts that seems to revolve around three main contentions:
1) Climbers are frequently in need of rescue: False. The fact of the matter is that Mt Hood is summited more times per year than any other mountain in the world with the exception of Mt Fuji in Japan. Naturally, any area with a higher density of traffic will have a proportionate amount of incidents. Unfortunately no media attention is given to the thousands of people who make it down safely each year.
Few would argue the fact that climbing is without risk, yet climbers take great care and pride in policing themselves to ensure that their skill and preparedness are equal to or greater than the risk they encounter. In some cases, such as the recent one, skill and preparedness avail little and tragedy ensues. Even in spite of inevitable accidents, the data below suggests that climbing rescues are relatively infrequent compared to rescues associated with other activities.
Rescue missions
Number of statewide search and rescue operations carried out by Oregon State Sheriff's Office.
136 - Hikers
119 - Motor Vehicles
48 - Wandering
39 - Game Hunting
30 - Aviation
28 - Suicide
22 - Swimming
21 - Snowmobile
21 - Fishing
21 - ATV Mission
15 - Climbers
13 - Snowboarding
11 - Bicycle
10 - Other snow
9 - Mushroom Pickers
6 - Criminal
6 - Cross Country Ski
Source: 2008 Statistics from the Oregon Emergency Management's 2008 Annual Report
2) Climbers ought to be forced to carry Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs): 
SAR (search and rescue) professionals widely say that the added technological safety net of a PLB encourages climbers to "shut off" their brain and simply rely on gadgetry, causing them to take greater risks than they can manage simply with their own judgment. This is not to say that PLBs can not be useful, but that they should be a matter of personal choice and should not be mandated as though they were a magical, get-out-of-jail-free card. How many people have even gotten lost while driving because they misread a GPS or it malfunctioned somehow? Technology can not and should not be a substitute for good judgment along with basic equipment.
Without mandating the use of PLB technology, beginners are more likely to take the time to develop skills gradually with much lower levels of risk and eventually will advance to the point that they may be able to use technology to augment their judgment, not replace it.
3) Climbers ought to be charged for their rescues: Before addressing this one, please refer to the above statistic from the Oregon Emergency Management's 2008 Annual Report. Where is the outcry for charging motorists? ATVers? The families of suicide victims? Nothing of the sort has been suggested, yet all of these create more rescue/recovery situations than do climbers.
The fact is that mountain rescue operations could not be adequately funded with tax dollars. The SAR teams on the ground and the choppers in the air are largely unpaid volunteers who take pride in going out to assist their fallen climbers. The only taxes used are those paid to the Sheriffs office to oversee the operation- salaries that are in place regardless who necessitates the rescue.
"Helicopters are provided by the military, who use rescue flight time to fulfill regular training hours requirements that all pilots are required to complete. Pilots would be required to spend these hours in flight training regardless of a mountain rescue, and this rescue flight time provides superior training opportunities than mere training drills where no lives are at stake."
-Portland Mountain Rescue
Just as PLBs have been known to make climbers too reliant on a quick and easy rescue, an expensive rescue can make them wait until it is too late and conditions have deteriorated too far, exposing searchers to greater hazard in the long run while decreasing the chances of victim survival. The MRA (Mountain Rescue Association) has also spoken out against the idea of charging for rescues (link below).
It is unfortunate that we will not likely see any positive, accurate representations of climbing in mainstream media, but at times of tragedy like this, it does behoove media outlets to include all the facts by consulting those in the climbing and SAR community who can really shed light on various arguments in a manner that is less likely to encourage the public to leap feet-first into the logical crevasses of uninformed negativity. Mourning friends and family members should not have to read strangers comments on news sites that accuse their loved ones of being incompetent and reckless.
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Comments
Thank you for " setting me straight " on the Mount Hood Climbing story , , , It seems all too often now, that one has to rely on sources other than the main stream media for accurate and informative information, news, and events !!
The logic espoused by anti-locator advocates is simply flawed.
Imagine saying "We should not require beginning drivers to use seatbelts as the use of safety devices too early would hamper their ability to learn how to drive responsibly" There are any number of similar examples I could use by way of comparison.
Too bad Nate can't even read. I wonder if he ever even put an ice-axe in his hand on anything more than a practice session in the gym room.
How can one set the record straight when we have no definitive info on what happened to 2/3 of the team? Gripe about your choice of headline verbiage aside, I applaud your observations and agree with the sentiment about climbing and responsibility.
Nate- Seatbelts are in no way analogous to PLBs and that is one of the major disconnects I sought to address here. PLBs are more akin to Onstar or a GPS. Good tools to have in the arsenal but not items which should be mandatory. The seatbelt is more akin to the basic safety precautions like axes, ropes, anchors etc- and no one is downplaying those. Really what you are advocating is more likely to cause people to "forget the seatbelt, because they have Onstar to mop up after their crash".
The fact that technology is not substitute for thinking does not, as the writer imply, that they should not be used in conjunction. Technology no more makes people careless than their own view oh how good they are .
I am curious how these climbers decided to climb when the possibility of avalanche was apparently so present.
Regardless of how "great" and "courageous" blah blah this writer thinks of snow climbers, they clearly do take their lives into their hands when they could climb in fall or summer instead.
I'm afraid I really I do not have much sympathy for these people regardless of the tragedy.
Thank you for your informed article. It is a shame that mass media can't take 10 minutes to get an informed opinion on the subject.
Howard- thank you for highlighting some of the misconceptions which I mention in my article. If you actually read the article (not skim it) you will see that I and most of the SAR community are against MANDATORY PLBs, not against people using them in conjunction with other skills. Making them mandatory places an undue emphasis on their limited role in surviving an emergency which ought not be relied upon.
Secondly, these climbers began climbing on friday when conditions were ideal, and avalanche danger low. Only the weather systems over the weekend changed that-- and subsequently that has affected the rescue.
Winter climbing may seem odd but the warmer months hold a higher probability of ice and rock fall as the ice which holds the mountain together like glue, for lack of a better example, begins to let go. Unfortunately the snow and ice aren't quite enough to fill up all the crevasses and so it is more a matter of which type of risk you feel more comfortable mitigating.
Thank you so much for a fair article about the recent climbing news. If I was smart, I would think you visited SummitPost recently...
Howard's comment below is a great example of what happens when these things are mis-reported.
"I am curious how these climbers decided to climb when the possibility of avalanche was apparently so present."
Hey Howard, no one even knows what happened yet, so why are you saying anything about avalanche danger? This is exactly what this article is trying to change, ignorance...
The anti-PLB comments are nonsensical. An analogy might be having a watch so you're on time to appointments. So what if you're reliant on the watch? Not having a PLB potentially puts many other people in danger when a rescue is needed.
Also, a required insurance policy for backcountry rescues like the one Colorado requires makes for a very small user cost and would adequately reimburse the search and rescue folks who often have to use their personal equipment and have training costs.
Finally, according to the numbers above, climbers do have a high rescue rate! There aren't that many climbers compared with ATV drivers! Moreover, those who use technical routes or go out in the middle of winter are at a very high risk.
Thanks for the article Stephen.
I don't think it's how often a rescue is needed that the public reacts to - it's more the cost / value that they perceive. I think it's more that the general public perceives the value of climbing as very low, there's little positive media attention for climbing. We climbers don't like that - that's unfortunate for us.
Nate - do a search for "Risk Compensation". It is a researched and documented behavior.
Thank you all for taking the time to read and comment on this. I appreciate all the input I get in terms of my opinion whether you agree or not.
As far as the PLBs go, it is certainly an open debate in the climbing community as to their worth- much like the value of bolting and retro bolting X or R rated routes. I simply wanted readers to know that there is "another side" to this debate, at least in terms of mandatory PLBs.
Neither my sources nor my personal experience cause me to be against the use of PLBs in general- however both DO cause me to be against making them mandatory. Again, if my say so is not good enough, the MRA and PMR (linked in the article)both have expressed their professional opinions on the matter.
Squishy- I love SP-- and one thing I hope to express with this article is how accessible good information is if there is a desire to be accurate. I am not the worlds greatest climber, yet I manage to put in a climbers perspective with little additional effort
PLBs are as smart as the people using them. That's why a lot of SAR teams hate 'em. Its called Yuppie 911 - "save me 'cause i'm tired and ran out of water'. A lot of people simply shouldn't be out there, and I'm not talking about climbers for the most part.
Betsy - The SAR card in Colorado is not mandatory. It is included in hunting/fishing licenses and off road vehicle registration, but it is not a fee and is not required. Also, the SAR card money does nothing to help SAR members with personal gear or with training. It is strictly to cover the cost of a search and rescue.
Thank you for putting the truth out there. The lies and slander being spread through other news outlets has been very painful. The public seems unwilling to accept that bizarre accidents can happen despite precautions.
My daughter is a good friend of, Katie, one of the hikers. We continue to pray for their survival and recovery. Thank you for setting the record straight and educating people.
Thanks for writing this article. I've been posting it everywhere. Unfortunately, when climbing goes wrong, it generally goes REALLY wrong and the media pounces on it. I worked in a newsroom where the motto, "If it bleeds, it leads," was posted on the wall. All this media coverage gives the general public the wrong idea about the risks and costs. Again, thanks for the balanced article.
Thank you - I am a friend of Anthony and Luke. I quite strongly disagree with the comments I've heard about climbers paying for the cost of rescue, and I don't believe for a minute that the my friends were reckless in their decision to climb. Unfortunately, I had no real facts to back up my opinion - just a general feeling that saving a human life is always worth the cost and general knowledge of Luke's and Anthony's characters. It's so encouraging to read someone who has a little knowledge "setting the record straight".
Thank you for writing this. I'm a friend of Anthony and Luke's (and Joanna's sister) and it's absolutely terrible what people are saying about their judgment and character. These guys were experienced and they knew what they were doing. The fact is, Mt. Hood is open during the winter and people climb it because it's a challenge, NOT because it's a death wish. Plenty of people make it down just fine. I'm just so sorry that my friends did not.
You insensitive bastards. There are 2 people out there that are slowly freezing to death... Cost is no object..........
Thank you all for your comments- it really means a great deal to me that you all who are so close to this situation got a chance to see this, because I can only imagine how my blood would boil were I in the same position. Nevertheless, as a climber there is still a link there and the loss is painful and the insensitivity and ignorance is horrifying. All we can do is keep trying and keep hope alive for these two.
I recommend "touching the void" if you have never seen it, about one such long shot survival situation. Thank you again for taking the time to weigh in on things.
Thanks for writing this article. I've been posting it everywhere. Unfortunately, when climbing goes wrong, it generally goes REALLY wrong and the media pounces on it. I worked in a newsroom where the motto, "If it bleeds, it leads," was posted on the wall. All this media coverage gives the general public the wrong idea about the risks and costs. Again, thanks for the balanced article.
Great leadership article Stephen. Thanks for taking the time to provide data and a balanced perspective. It makes it easier for me to change world views of what is possible and appropriate when I have discussions with my friends.
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Were there any law suits filed?
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