Thanks for living there, and not here
Mt Whitney fatality early November
Forum rules
Please be respectful when posting - family and friends of fallen climbers might be reading this forum.
Please be respectful when posting - family and friends of fallen climbers might be reading this forum.
- Barnold41
- Posts: 323
- Joined: 9/8/2016
- 14ers: 15
- 13ers: 12
- Trip Reports (0)
Re: Mt Whitney fatality early November
I'm old, slow and fat. Unfortunately, those are my good qualities.
- blazintoes
- Posts: 322
- Joined: 9/4/2012
- 14ers: 58 58
- 13ers: 327 3 73
- Trip Reports (16)
Re: Mt Whitney fatality early November
[quote=nyker post_id=729496 time=1606712223 user_id=7454]
Such a shame to hear about this.
I won't speculate on the how/what/why's but what I can say is even on the standard Whitney Main Trail, if conditions are cold, snowy and/or dark it can be very disorienting even for someone experienced in the mountains.
From what I understand she was just going for an afternoon quick day hike, not a summit climb and slipped and fell not that far out from the Portal and was apparently just off the trail.
Most people expecting to be on a short ~1hr hike probably won't be bringing a pack filled with the normal layers and additional gear you'd bring for a lengthy summit climb or late Autumn ascent.
I've been on the rock there in many different weather scenarios and when it's iced over, the ice is often not evident and its easy to slip even on route, if you stray off route even a few feet
you're likely to encounter cliff bands with 50-100ft or more drops. This area is often at a transition point where ice starts where even if you brought microspikes you might not put them on yet.
Accidents happen to the best of us and they usually begin with a simple slip or trip which then isn't stopped. I'd say 100% of us have had seemingly innocent "trips" or "slips" in the mountains at some point.
The fact that she survived two nights out before succumbing, after falling and very possibly seriously injured and scared, with minimal food and water, wearing summer clothes in below freezing temps / negative windchill in an approaching storm
tells me she was a tough determined person.
RIP Cassandra. To her friends and family, our thoughts are with you.
[/quote]
This was the perfect thing to say. Thank you.
Such a shame to hear about this.
I won't speculate on the how/what/why's but what I can say is even on the standard Whitney Main Trail, if conditions are cold, snowy and/or dark it can be very disorienting even for someone experienced in the mountains.
From what I understand she was just going for an afternoon quick day hike, not a summit climb and slipped and fell not that far out from the Portal and was apparently just off the trail.
Most people expecting to be on a short ~1hr hike probably won't be bringing a pack filled with the normal layers and additional gear you'd bring for a lengthy summit climb or late Autumn ascent.
I've been on the rock there in many different weather scenarios and when it's iced over, the ice is often not evident and its easy to slip even on route, if you stray off route even a few feet
you're likely to encounter cliff bands with 50-100ft or more drops. This area is often at a transition point where ice starts where even if you brought microspikes you might not put them on yet.
Accidents happen to the best of us and they usually begin with a simple slip or trip which then isn't stopped. I'd say 100% of us have had seemingly innocent "trips" or "slips" in the mountains at some point.
The fact that she survived two nights out before succumbing, after falling and very possibly seriously injured and scared, with minimal food and water, wearing summer clothes in below freezing temps / negative windchill in an approaching storm
tells me she was a tough determined person.
RIP Cassandra. To her friends and family, our thoughts are with you.
[/quote]
This was the perfect thing to say. Thank you.
-
- Posts: 40
- Joined: 3/4/2018
- 14ers: 12
- Trip Reports (0)
-
- Posts: 777
- Joined: 11/19/2017
- 14ers: 3
- 13ers: 1
- Trip Reports (2)
Re: Mt Whitney fatality early November
so does the size of the hole you're digging.
"The decay and disintegration of this culture is astonishingly amusing if you're emotionally detached from it." - George Carlin
Re: Mt Whitney fatality early November
You asked about Shasta in Jan and wrote “I'm not an expert on winter mountains”. I’m curious what incredible feats of strength have made you an expert sierra nevada hiker in less than a year?
- Mtnman200
- Posts: 1113
- Joined: 9/26/2012
- 14ers: 58 1
- 13ers: 440
- Trip Reports (85)
Re: Mt Whitney fatality early November
You’re not making any friends here.
"Adventure without risk is not possible." - Reinhold Messner
- Wildernessjane
- Posts: 560
- Joined: 7/15/2012
- 14ers: 58 13 46
- 13ers: 256 25 19
- Trip Reports (0)
Re: Mt Whitney fatality early November
I remember that thread. He was looking for a way to do Shasta without having to use any snow gear. It was mind-boggling to me. Who would prefer scree over a snow route? Someone who doesn’t know any better, that’s who.
Last edited by Wildernessjane on Wed Dec 02, 2020 5:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
“Climb mountains not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world.” -David McCullough?
-
- Posts: 148
- Joined: 8/28/2018
- 14ers: 28 1
- 13ers: 18 1
- Trip Reports (0)
Re: Mt Whitney fatality early November
But his strength doubles every day, which by my calculations means 310 days later he is 2,085,924,839,766,510,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times stronger now.Wildernessjane wrote: ↑Wed Dec 02, 2020 3:58 pmI remember that thread. He was looking for a way to do Shasta without having to use any snow gear. It was mind-boggling to me. Who would prefer scree over a snow route? Someone who doesn’t know any better, that’s who.
Re: Mt Whitney fatality early November
In a way, he's telling the truth. Zero doubled that many times is still zero.teamdonkey wrote: ↑Wed Dec 02, 2020 4:17 pmBut his strength doubles every day, which by my calculations means 310 days later he is 2,085,924,839,766,510,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times stronger now.
I'm old, slow and fat. Unfortunately, those are my good qualities.
- Barnold41
- Posts: 323
- Joined: 9/8/2016
- 14ers: 15
- 13ers: 12
- Trip Reports (0)
-
- Posts: 1407
- Joined: 8/17/2018
- 14ers: 43
- 13ers: 5
- Trip Reports (0)
Re: Mt Whitney fatality early November
Delete.
Sean Nunn
Sean Nunn
Last edited by nunns on Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Thy righteousness is like the great mountains." --Psalms 36:6