Quandary Peak, West Ridge, rescue 5/29/17

[Phill the Thrill]

Happy to hear of a good outcome.

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/two-cli ... it-county/

[wyyld]

Crazy. I've heard that route can be tough at some points to retreat from. Happy to hear that they were rescued. Puts life in perspective when you go through something that harrowing.

[khendriks]

I watched as the helicopter picked up the 2 individuals from about 13,000 feet on the east slopes. Glad they are alright.

[gurlyclimber]

How did this warrant a rescue? My partners and I and many of you have been in similar situations. You push forward and keep moving. I've been on the route. Yes, it is a bit contrived and in bad weather, even more so but I really don't get this mentality of getting a rescue cuz you're scared, cold and a little lost. I find it hard to believe they exhausted all of their options if no one was injured. Maybe I'm missing a big piece of information? Enlighten me or flame me. Either way, I don't get it.

So they were stuck overnight anyway even with the rescue??? So freezing to death wasn't the issue.

Confused

[tjmartn1]

How did this warrant a rescue? My partners and I and many of you have been in similar situations. You push forward and keep moving. I've been on the route. Yes, it is a bit contrived and in bad weather, even more so but I really don't get this mentality of getting a rescue cuz you're scared, cold and a little lost. I find it hard to believe they exhausted all of their options if no one was injured. Maybe I'm missing a big piece of information?

Confused

Yes, I'd say you're missing a big piece of information. Namely, every piece of information not included in this very short article. In fact, I'd say you really don't know anything at all right now about how and why they required rescue. But I'm sure whatever it was, it would never have happened to you.

[gurlyclimber]

Awwwww. Did I offend you? I expected my inquiry to bring about a response like this. Typical.

[justiner]

Yeah, I dunno, there's certainly room for speculation on how endangered these folks were. Major problems happen when minor mistakes add up, so one way to stop a major problem from happening is to stop adding up those minor mistakes - and one of those minor mistakes could be trying to extract oneself from the situation. I remember doing then West Ridge and feeling on my limit - sincerely crying at the summit out of relief: I made a wrong turn following what I found later to be goat tracks thinking I was going the right way, but it was only the right way straight off the side on crumbling terrain.

There's a healthy amount of risk, money, time, personnel, and equipment (choppers) needed for a rescue, and that sticks in the back of my mind on objectives I like to try when conditions/terrain are at my limit. If the formula don't add up, I do something else. But I'm pretty conservative, I'd have to add.

[gurlyclimber]

I agree Justiner so I posed the question in hopes of getting facts, not assumptions or responses of hurt feelings because I had the audacity to ask.

My question isn't an attack on the climbers. I am legitimately trying to understand. Like I said, I've done the route and not really understanding why they couldn't reverse course, even in a whiteout, unless they were injured or incapacitated. I'd rather try my hardest to go up or back (maybe they did) as opposed to spending an awful night up there like they did.

The 9 news article that came out this morning regarding the excessive rescues on Quandary is where my inquiry came from. I'd copy it here but now I can't find it on the site.

[polar]

I don’t think it’s our place to decide whether a rescue is warranted. There are just way too unknowns and variables that we don’t know, and will never know. The hikers ability, physical, and mental state are all things that we do not have insight to. Maybe you can climb your way out of their predicament, gurlyclimber, but that’s not to say these two hikers could have done the same. The fact that both are safe is probably an argument that they made the right decision. If they tried to extricate themselves, maybe they could’ve succeeded, or maybe they could’ve really hurt themselves. We will never know for sure, and it doesn’t help anyone to play “what ifs”.

For what it’s worth, I’ve done the West Ridge with snow and rime ice covering everything. The crux before the summit, a notch you need to downclimb then climb up on the other side, was very treacherous in icy conditions. Since the article said they were about 300 feet below the summit, this may very well be where they were stuck. If they somehow sketched their way down into the notch, but could not safely climb up on either side of the notch, they really don’t have any other options to retreat. This is all speculation on my part of course, but I would give them the benefit of doubt.

Bottom line is: did they make mistakes to get themselves into a bad situation? 100% no doubt that they did. But was it a mistake to request rescue? I'm not so sure.

[justiner]

Haha, which one?! Maybe this is the one you're thinking of,

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/rescues ... -prepared/

Quandary is the only mountain I believe where I've been stopped by a friendly ranger, who just wanted to warn us of the dangers of the mountain. My first trail report was on getting over our newbie heads on Quandary.

Funnily, I was similar conditions a few weeks ago whistling as I hiked, running laps! Perspective is a lovely thing.

[gurlyclimber]

Yep! That's the one that I saw! Thanks.


What are the facts that caused these individuals to require a rescue? Better? Good grief.

I think its really fu**** up that some of you are throwing assumptions around about me for even asking. You have no clue what I have done or experienced or blah blah blah. I'm simply asking. What I can say is that I have enough experience to know when not to leave my bed due to weather or inexperience so perhaps you're correct stating that this wouldn't have happened to me. Good job!

PS...I am glad they are safe. FWIW

[polar]

Whoa, anger management issues? Who's throwing assumptions where?