Rescue on Mt Princeton

[jrbren_vt]

No shame in not knowing.

I know what you mean, but not checking the weather forecast could be interpreted as "not knowing", but really is being perhaps a little ignorant. This individual sounds like they went out thinking summer was happening and found winter in full force instead. That's preventable by looking at a calendar. Princeton is easily viewable from a distance from just town, there shouldn't have been a big surprise, once you see snow on the ground.

But how many times has someone on this forum (or the facebook pages) responded to someone looking for advice to do a winter climb this time of year that winter doesn't start until the solstice ?

[justiner]

But how many times has someone on this forum (or the facebook pages) responded to someone looking for advice to do a winter climb this time of year that winter doesn't start until the solstice ?

Off the top of my head? I'm not sure. I can only think of when people ask for couloir routes to do in the winter and there's some chatter about that being A Very Bad Idea, which is I think worth the chastising. The Winter resources that are on the .com are certainly

[osprey]

mtngoatwithstyle:
You are thinking of this thread perhaps?

IMG_6095.jpeg (144.5 KiB) Viewed 18993 times

[justiner]

"The hiker could only tell rescuers that they were in an avalanche chute east of Cottonwood Lake." - That's a wild place to find yourself, if your goal was Mt. Princeton.

That ridgeline with the huge notch in it east (and south) of Cottonwood Lake always looked crazy to me.

[PJ88]

"The hiker could only tell rescuers that they were in an avalanche chute east of Cottonwood Lake." - That's a wild place to find yourself, if your goal was Mt. Princeton.

That ridgeline with the huge notch in it east (and south) of Cottonwood Lake always looked crazy to me.

The article said their goal was a 13k ridge north of Princeton. Maybe the UN there?

[the_hare]

Perhaps found some more info? In comments on post abt this on hiking Reddit forum r/hiking, from daughter of the subject. She shared a backyard pic with semi-arid mountain brush several years ago saying that she lives in central CO at elevation, perhaps around Salida, so it seems legit enough to me.

Elsewhere in the comments she said the subject had 20 yrs of mountain/outdoor experience, had several more layers besides just the “cotton hoodie,” and had a sat phone too that he used to communicate his position in the chute.

The objective of the 13k ft ridge per the SAR report makes more sense to me if the subject was indeed a more experienced local. To me this incident exemplifies a trend I’m picking up from other similar mountain accidents including the one on Shavano mentioned above: an experienced outdoor hiker confidently makes some initial poor decisions which lead them into conditions that easily facilitate making more poor decisions. Glad this guy and the rescuers all made it out ok

[justiner]

To me this incident exemplifies a trend I’m picking up from other similar mountain accidents including the one on Shavano mentioned above: an experienced outdoor hiker confidently makes some initial poor decisions which lead them into conditions that easily facilitate making more poor decisions.

There's even a book about this,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Survival

[sunbleached]

To me this incident exemplifies a trend I’m picking up from other similar mountain accidents including the one on Shavano mentioned above: an experienced outdoor hiker confidently makes some initial poor decisions which lead them into conditions that easily facilitate making more poor decisions. Glad this guy and the rescuers all made it out ok

"Complacency" might be too loaded of a word, but it's close enough. Spend lots of time in an area that you know well, and perhaps those unknown-unknowns catch up to you on a day you didn't expect.

I had an incident happen to me in Yosemite where a friend of mine and I climbed the Southeast Buttress of Cathedral Peak - 6 pitches, 5.6. We're strong climbers and have a lot of experience in the Sierra Nevada, but that day we got complacent, started too late in the day, and didn't see on the forecast that despite the perfect sunny and warm days prior, there were 35 mph sustained winds and 45 mph gusts at the top. We couldn't top out and ended up staying on the peak for 15 hours until we could get down and the wind somewhat abated.

I can't speak to what happened to this man as I'm not him and I wasn't there. I can, however, speak to myself that the complacency and lack of a beginner's mindset on my own near-incident on Cathedral Peak could have led to a poor outcome.

[daway8]

The other trend I'm seeing is highly incomplete reporting of stories like this followed by people making all sorts of assumptions about what must have happened.

Typically it always starts out looking like the person was totally unprepared and did something way stupider than any of us supposedly would.

But then details like these emerge and you see they were actually better prepared than the initial reporting suggested and, while there were certainly poor decisions made, it's easier to see any one of us pushing the limits a little too far and ending up in the same kind of situation.

[mtngoatwithstyle]

mtngoatwithstyle:
You are thinking of this thread perhaps?IMG_6095.jpeg

Yes, Osprey. That was shocking to read.

[Candace66]

The other trend I'm seeing is highly incomplete reporting of stories like this followed by people making all sorts of assumptions about what must have happened.

Typically it always starts out looking like the person was totally unprepared and did something way stupider than any of us supposedly would.

But then details like these emerge and you see they were actually better prepared than the initial reporting suggested and, while there were certainly poor decisions made, it's easier to see any one of us pushing the limits a little too far and ending up in the same kind of situation.

So, what details have emerged? Are you referring to social media posts by people claiming to be family of the victim?

[daway8]

So, what details have emerged? Are you referring to social media posts by people claiming to be family of the victim?

I'm referring to what the_hare posted above - both the written description and the screenshot.