Michelle Vanek

[Jon Frohlich]

Glad they finally found her.

Completely bizarre article.

[Old Hickory]

Glad they finally found her.

Completely bizarre article.

The framing is not unusual for a 'feature' article in a magazine--the author found a 'theme' to run with. However, the facts reported are interesting. I didn't realize SAR had recovered so much stuff after 19 years. Her gear looked to be in remarkably good shape; the preservative effect of high altitude is amazing.

But what I don't understand is the timeline (and apologies if I didn't read closely enough). The location of her gear and remains supports the theory that she made it to the rendezvous point but started hiking off route and down a gully. So, did she get to the rendezvous point before her partner showed up after summiting, thought she had missed him, and continued walking? Or did she make it there later, after he had freaked out and ran to get a cell signal?

At any rate, the important thing is that she was found. I don't know her or anyone involved but the 'vanishing' part has bothered me for a long time. I've hiked Holy Cross twice and think I do understand that, even in the universe of Colorado 14ers, HC is a very big mountain.

[Bill G]

In all the years of following, I always understood they intended to hike the Halo Route. Now I read they did that by accident and intended on hiking Halfmoon. What was discovered is she started down climbing Angelica Coulier to Lake Patricia. That where they found her gear and remains. So, she was almost to the correct trail when she started down. SAR had always assumed she missed the main trail and started down towards Cross Creek. This is the most common mistake. Almost all missing climbers on HC end up here. They spent over a year looking for James Nelson in that same general area. He was discovered just off the HC jeep road.

[Wish I lived in CO]

So glad her body has been found.

[JChitwood]

She was found a year ago. There were articles in the mountain newspapers if there was coverage on the Front Range I missed it. Seems odd 5280 is just getting the story out.

[gb]

Here's a better article: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-a ... oly-cross/

[rijaca]

Here's a better article: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-a ... oly-cross/

“She was the only hiker ever to die while seeking the summit of central Colorado’s most famous 14er.”

Not true.

[Hungry Jack]

That's an odd article. A father and his son find Vanek's boot beneath a cliff, pointing searchers to the new area, and the article turns it into an engendered statement about feminine intuition, additionally guided by another man's dream about women..

Furthermore, the article severely discredits phenomenal efforts and thought made by hundreds of people against a tight deadline, and attributes previous failures to male egoism and shortcomings. It seems there are other ways to make a statement than portraying SAR as a bunch of misogynistic sheep.

WTF. That article made the world dumber

[ultimategully]

Fascinating story, but that 5280 article bizarrely making it about feminism is cringe and embarrassing.

[blazintoes]

Is it cool to bash on men nowadays? Was the 5280 article an opinion piece? If not, the editors should be fired for not eliminating the last line that is emotionally satisfying but intellectually cheap. The article itself is ignorant and cheap i.e. "...her body was discovered only a half-mile from her last known location." A 1/2 mile is a lot.

What could have been a story about skill and persistence instead became a gender scorecard, which completely undermines the team's accomplishments. When you write things like this it is a card that only women can play and even more so when claiming women's intuition. Framing this as a gendered victory alienates the inclusivity it claims to celebrate. Intuition, empathy and persistence are not owned by women. These are human traits. This rescue isn't about women doing what men couldn't. They succeeded because they brought fresh eyes to an old mystery. Either you can or can't do a job. That is competence, not chromosomes.

The Outside article did a better job at stating the facts and removing biases. One of the better paragraphs was, "God didn’t engineer this multigenerational tragedy. God created the earth and its heavenly places for our enjoyment. It’s on us to either follow or disregard the outdoor playground’s rules. And reap the rewards, or suffer the consequences."

You can't get mad a nature for being nature.

And speaking of nature, it is cool nowadays to start loving and admiring beautiful humans. Found this picture on my husbands photo reel. Cute.

[susanjoypaul]

Is it cool to bash on men nowadays? Was the 5280 article an opinion piece?

It's an opinion piece.

I've been following this post and thinking about chiming in to point that out, but... just got lazy. Anyway, it's under "News & Features," and it's definitely a feature.

As a former journalist and columnist (who still gets occasional requests to write articles and columns), I know there's a big difference in how you approach these different formats. News articles are objective. The writer has to take their opinions, beliefs, and all that stuff out of the story and focus on the facts. Columns (or features, as they're referred to here) are a chance for the writer to take an angle and express a point of view. You probably know all that already I don't agree with the angle the writer took for this story, but it's her opinion and she has a right to it. We don't all have to agree with it.

I'm not going to attack her, though. Writing's hard. Getting read is hard. Especially today, with all the free content available - and a lot of it generated by AI engines trained on actual writers' work (for which the authors weren't compensated... Don't even get me started on that discussion - currently in a class action suit over several of my books).

Sometimes writers resort to retelling stories that have gotten a lot of attention in the past, and writing them from a fresh angle. Clickbait? Maybe. I can't say. I'm not that writer's head. But if that's the case, she definitely succeeded in her objective of being read. And like they say, "There's no such thing as bad publicity."

[ultimategully]

Is it cool to bash on men nowadays? Was the 5280 article an opinion piece?

It's an opinion piece.

I've been following this post and thinking about chiming in to point that out, but... just got lazy. Anyway, it's under "News & Features," and it's definitely a feature.

As a former journalist and columnist (who still gets occasional requests to write articles and columns), I know there's a big difference in how you approach these different formats. News articles are objective. The writer has to take their opinions, beliefs, and all that stuff out of the story and focus on the facts. Columns (or features, as they're referred to here) are a chance for the writer to take an angle and express a point of view. You probably know all that already I don't agree with the angle the writer took for this story, but it's her opinion and she has a right to it. We don't all have to agree with it.

I'm not going to attack her, though. Writing's hard. Getting read is hard. Especially today, with all the free content available - and a lot of it generated by AI engines trained on actual writers' work (for which the authors weren't compensated... Don't even get me started on that discussion - currently in a class action suit over several of my books).

Sometimes writers resort to retelling stories that have gotten a lot of attention in the past, and writing them from a fresh angle. Clickbait? Maybe. I can't say. I'm not that writer's head. But if that's the case, she definitely succeeded in her objective of being read. And like they say, "There's no such thing as bad publicity."

Yeah, it's cool for people to post "opinion" articles on the internet, it's also cool for us to flame such poorly written articles filled with dumb ideas on an internet forum.