Capitol Peak Accident 7/19/2013

[IronLionZion]

There are lots of things he could of and perhaps should have done.. It angers me that people's first reaction is to critique someone's decision rather than bless their soul. What's done is done and is very sad indeed. Godspeed

[mattpayne11]

There are lots of things he could of and perhaps should have done.. It angers me that people's first reaction is to critique someone's decision rather than bless their soul. What's done is done and is very sad indeed. Godspeed

This comes up every time there's an accident. I think this forum would benefit greatly from a separate accident forum and a memorium forum, keeping the two separated would help a lot. Just my 2 cents. Other climbing websites do this with great success. Examples:

http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/for ... i?forum=78;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mountain Project:

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/injuri ... /105950972" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/memorial/106127522" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think this would help keep the animosity about analysis to a minimum and help people keep the speculation/analysis out of the memorium area. Thoughts?

[MountainHiker]

Please keep in mind that releases to the media tend to be sparse on details. Unless someone close to the incident comes forward with more information we can only speculate without knowing. I’m sure Ryan’s companions are having a rough time with this. My thoughts are with them.

[lakecityrat]

My deepest condolences to his friends and family.

I urge everyone to please not criticize this man's decision to take the dangerous route down. Remeber, most of the public thinks we are crazy for climbing these peaks at all. Judge not, lest ye be judged.

[OutdoorEsprit]

My deepest condolences to his friends and family.

I urge everyone to please not criticize this man's decision to take the dangerous route down. Remeber, most of the public thinks we are crazy for climbing these peaks at all. Judge not, lest ye be judged.

I agree wholeheartedly. We all take risks simply by being on 14ers, but choose to climb them anyway, each for our own reasons. We can never truly know what exactly happened in a situation like this, nor is it our place to judge someone for the decisions they made based on knowledge we may not be aware of. Let us honor their memory and who they are, and save analyses of what happened for another time and place.

If we do choose to analyze a situation like this, I think it's important to focus only on the discussion of events/conditions etc., rather than on criticizing the person in that situation. That is neither constructive nor considerate of that person or their family.

[kushrocks]

My deepest condolences to his friends and family.

I urge everyone to please not criticize this man's decision to take the dangerous route down. Remeber, most of the public thinks we are crazy for climbing these peaks at all. Judge not, lest ye be judged.

I agree wholeheartedly. We all take risks simply by being on 14ers, but choose to climb them anyway, each for our own reasons. We can never truly know what exactly happened in a situation like this, nor is it our place to judge someone for the decisions they made based on knowledge we may not be aware of. Let us honor their memory and who they are, and save analyses of what happened for another time and place.

If we do choose to analyze a situation like this, I think it's important to focus only on the discussion of events/conditions etc., rather than on criticizing the person in that situation. That is neither constructive nor considerate of that person or their family.

Agreed. Its easy to make calls about mistakes behind a computer screen. If this happened to me I would not want people discussing accident details or critiquing my mistake here. Have a little heart and compassion.

Rest in Peace Ryan

[forbins_mtn]

I'm simply at a loss for words. I'm in the stage of my mountain climbing life that I'm so pumped and energetic for gaining new experience and tackling harder peaks. And then I see the amount of loss that this community deals with. It tears me apart.

I'm not a very religious person, but I pray every single time I see one of these threads. I send energy, thoughts, prayers and anything else I can muster for these families in their time of grief. I can't fathom what it must be like to lose someone in this sport. It doesn't matter what choices they made, could have made or should have made. They're gone. A human being is gone. That's huge.

So depressing to read these week after week.

[taylorzs]

Ryan was a friend of mine. We worked together for five years and got out for some long hikes, backpacks, and a bit of backcountry snowboarding. We never really did any serious mountaineering together. I was really sad to hear about this. It is a sad story and not one I feel like sharing in detail on this forum. Here is a picture of Ryan enjoying some really great powder on Berthoud pass last year. He had a lot of fun in his life. Rest in peace my friend;

[rijaca]

This comes up every time there's an accident. I think this forum would benefit greatly from a separate accident forum and a memorium forum, keeping the two separated would help a lot. Just my 2 cents. Other climbing websites do this with great success. Examples:

I think this would help keep the animosity about analysis to a minimum and help people keep the speculation/analysis out of the memorium area. Thoughts?

If you want to perform formal accident analysis based on ALL the facts regarding the incident, AND the intended result to prevent future incidents, by all means, start a new thread.

If you want to perform baseless speculation from news media reports and anonymous postings on the interweb, please shove it up your (and ctfbq's) a$$, er... take it somewhere else.

RIP Ryan

[EatinHardtack]

RIP Ryan.

Zach, nice picture of Ryan. I'm sorry for your loss.

[shearmodulus]

I was in the Denali group that had a climber die on the Windy Corner this year.

We'll all second guess our decision to single carry from 11K camp for the rest of our lives, but I think everyone feels that if we had to go, we'd rather be doing something like climbing than in a car accident or hooked to a machine in a hospital.

Climbing is dangerous, which is one of the reasons why we do it. I would rather celebrate the life of someone who has passed than mourn their death. I've lost more friends than I care to count in four deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, but what helps me is I focus on what their presence in my life gave me for the limited time I had, and honor that with my actions.

[Scatman]

I had a simple Harley ride turn into a situation where I was hanging onto life by a thread for weeks. I don't judge circumstance. I grieve for the wonderful people we have lost this year following their passion. I commend their spirit and fortitude. I share their love for the potentially dangerous but uniquely rewarding goal - the struggle to the summit. Compared to many on this site, I am not too experienced and probably shouldn't comment. I have not been on a mountain for two years due to the accident. But, I will reacquaint myself in September and remember with respect and admiration those who have left us this year. There is a special grace to those who have viewed the Rockies from the top, made the sacrifices, endured the hardships. Every tragedy leaves behind friends and family. They are the true victims and deserve our sympathy, thoughts, prayers.