Woman hiker falls to death on Utah's Mount Olympus

Source: Associated Press



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/ap_on_re_us/hiker_death_utah

---

It doesn't sound like much, but it's 30 stories. I've bungeed jumped from 110 feet and that was pretty frickin' high, IMHO.

I saw a guy almost get killed falling about 40 feet being a dumbass free-climbing.

where the only poster's names start with "Tab".

Something's gotta change...

:hi:

This is a west view of the summit, looking down on Salt Lake City:




This is the east view of the summit:




Edited to add link: http://www.gposoftware.com/photos.html

would be a nasty-assed fall.

Not saying this is the case, but photos can be deceptive. Neither of those indicate a very significant drop. Did she fall from the summit?

That is almost sure death, in construction alone half the people that fall 20 feet or more die... when it gets much higher than that it gets pretty fatal.

:( Plus I was very close to a deadly fall when I slipped climbing down Mt Ranier and was saved by a woman guide from Mountain Madness who was on the same rope as me and was able to stop us before going off a cliff. That was the last time I ever climbed a mountain!

You were on a rope, right?

I was in the Himalayas in 1990. I wouldn't give that up for anything.

If you're all moving together, then it takes skill from the others on the rope to hold you - dig in ice axes, use the ground the rope runs over as an anchor, or whatever can be done.

and the ice axe wasn't going in. Our guide was able to stop us out of pure determination and experience. She saved both of our lives that day!

It's like an addiction where sometimes people take more risks because they need a bigger high. But the elements always have the last say. We really have no control over that aspect. The best climbers can die. I know we can die walking across the street but once I had kids I wanted less risky activities. I never did any big climbing but there is nothing like that high when you get to the top! Or the satisfaction when all the guys in the group i was in said they never thought I would make it to the top (and I did!).

Back in the 90s. The trail going up is nothing, but you have to scrabble up the last 500 feet or so, and then the top is AMAZING. It's three points joined by an ice bridge, and it falls away steeply in all directions. It's very easy to fall of. RIP. Sorry for her family's loss.

Same link as original.

Either way, I think you're toast.

There is no reason to do dangerous crap like that. There is also no reason to bungee-jump, dive with sharks, or for that matter leave the continental United States where everyone wants to kill Americans.

When will people realize that doing stupid stuff gets you killed? Or have they realized it, and have they also realized they want to die in a spectacularly stupid way?

I can see the shark thing. But no travel abroad? Anywhere?

At least, in the nastiest parts of America, there is some reticence of people to kill you. Outside the borders they have no compunctions; in fact they're heroes if they kill Americans.

There is not one thing outside the continental United States that is worth risking your life to see or do. They can ship it in by people who are stupid enough, or well paid enough, to risk going out there.. Or they can send me a freaking picture (as someone who did this thread already did, several times).

If the haggis don't get you, the bagpipes will.


And that's before I met the Irish people who tried to kill me with whiskey.

So is skydiving. I am glad I got to do all those things before I became ill and no longer able to get around so well. Good times and good memories.

The military teaches you that, in the event of a disaster, the last thing you want to do is parachute out of a crashing airplane. People who jump are scattered all over the landscape (usually the enemy's landscape), are isolated, and will be much more easily captured and killed than if they all ride the plane down and leave together.

Skydivers don't even have the excuse of a damaged airplane. What fools these mortals be.

At least her last thoughts weren't, "Why didn't I ever climb a mountain." as an eighteen wheeler careened head on into her lane.

And, since she put herself in that situation, I daresay there wasn't anything in her mind before that.

...being born.

It is eventually 100% fatal.

Unless, that is, you have parents who were sane enough to abort you. Otherwise, you're screwed from the beginning.

Everything has some element of danger. So unless you pad yourself in a room, you're risking something. Might as well enjoy the outside world and what it has to offer. I live in Salt Lake and I love hiking, even though it can be risky.

But so is the drive to the trails.

If that were not so, everyone would enjoy the Iraq War or facing Harris and Klebold.

Because doing so brings the possibility of dying in terror.

Your plane could smash into a mountain.

You could be hit by a drunk driver.

You could drown.

You could have an electrical fire, burning alive as you struggle to escape your flame filled house.

The "going outside the continental US where everyone wants to kill Americans" in his first post should have tipped you off.

As for me, I live for adventure...and I hope you learn to live and enjoy life!

As you can see, I am rather addicted! It is a terribly expensive hobby, but I will do whatever it takes to keep doing it!

At the edge of the Southern Patagonia Ice Field near El Chalten, Argentina - AMAZING!


Can you believe some crazy Mofo once free climbed this mountain?!


Learning to Ice CLimb:


In front of the Perito Merino Glacier near EL Calafate, Argentina:


Torres Del Paine National Park near the southern tip of Chile:








Ushuaia, Argentina - southernmost city (not village - across the Beagle Channel in this picture is Isla Navarino which has a few small villages, like Puerto Williams, and a couple other smaller ones just a tiny bit further south) in the world off in the distance! Beautiful views up there that the picture just does not do justice!


About 50 km past Futaleafu, Chile on the Carreterra Austral - a very remote section of southern Chile near some fantastic white water rapids!


Smorgasbord of Animals in Etosha National Park, Namibia:


Entrance to the Skeleton Coast (Atlantic Coast of Namibia - very harsh desert):


The salt road, the bone dry desert, and the ocean in the background, along with my truck and tent on the roof (Skeleton Coast) - Something is very alluring about going to remote and places that are hard to get to!:


Big Boy (Etosha):


Family (Etosha):


It really is bloody dry in the Namib desert!


The end of an exhausting hike up Dead Vlei in the Namib Desert - a 1000 ft sand dune with the finest softest sand!


The view of Sossusvlei from Dead Vlei


Surreal tree on the salt pan with the Dead Vlei peak in the back (You bet I ran down that dune - 90 seconds down, but two hours up - what a ride!):


Leopards are the most gorgeous cats! Londolozi Private Game Reserve, South Africa - near Krueger:




Come on tough Guy! (Londolozi)



More Family!


More Leopard:


Vicious Lions - this crew is muching on a cape buffalo - they are a bad ass set of male lions that stalked and killed a couple prides of lions to take control of the territory:



Rhinos and Cape Buffalo to round out the big 5 at Londolozi:





I miss this stuff...maybe when the economy improves I can do it again!

You would be very welcome to post those and any more you wish in the Photography forum..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=280

yesterday by the comments above - I could not let them go unanswered!

That you would like to see them and I will link you to my page.

i haven't done anything nearly as exciting as you have. but i have been to a few places and it really makes you view the world differently.

I had traveled to every state in the continental US by the time I was 18, but had not seen much outside of Canada internationally until I did the backpacking thing after college in Europe...it snowballed from there...I have determined that I would like to go to every province of every country before I die....or die trying! I have a long way to go! A lot of it is about the "Because it is there" phenomenon, but it is always about the journey and the random fascinating things that happen on the way to all of the "destinations." The thing I like is that random positive unexpected things in daily life are what a lot of people appreciate - when traveling without an itinerary just to see what will happen, those randome things happen 20 times a day and the rush is incredible!

Good for you and your thirst for adventure, Lucky Luciano.

:yourock:

Having seen these pictures, no sane person would ever need or wish to go to these places. Let the people who make commercials for Busch go there and damn near die as they take such pictures. They're being paid for it.

I hope so. hehehe.

about what he is saying!

i stayed in a hotel on a little island in that lake behind you - at the base of Los Curenos. is that where you are standing? it looks like the same view to me. i did the big all day ice trek at Perito Moreno and it was amazing. best trip ever.
that reminds me, i have to get my pics off Facebook so I can actually print or post or do something with them. if you post more, send me a link.

-Sir Edmund Hillary (first to climb Everest when asked why he did it)

Sat on his wife's cot in their tent in Nepal and chatted for about 20 minutes.

Unlike other climbers, he's made a point to go back and support the Nepalese, build schools and whatever.

Why were you in Nepal?

That sounds like it could be an interesting story.

Because I always wanted to go, and realized I could with just a couple of thousand dollars for plane tickets and sherpas, and a little bit more for equipment.

The cool thing was that I made arrangements (and you have to get a shitload of vaccinations) and two weeks before departure, Nepal, which had never been in the news before, suddenly had its political breakdown. So when I arrived there were tanks in the street, martial law was imposed on Kathmandu, and we got out of the mountains one day before Royal Nepal Airlines (the only airline allowed to fly) mechanics went on strike. As I said, I met Sir Edmund Hillary, and his wife, and it was just a hell of a trip.

By the time I had money to do something like that I had kids and responsibilities..

Now I'm close to too old and close to broke again.

"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans" -John Lennon

but you're never too old, if you think you're up for it physically.

As I said, I bungeed jumped, but I was about 30 at the time. What I didn't say was that I gave it as a birthday gift to my mother who was, I think, 63 at the time. We both went down and then decided we wanted to do it again, so we went up for another dive.

There's shit in your life that you always say "oh I wish I (whatever - parachuted, bungeeed, etc., etc.). You don't need a whole lot of physical stamina to do some of these things - you could trek through India or Nepal if you wanted. Most people never do. It's easy to sit on a barstool and wish, but it's really not hard to actually DO. Go out and do it!! You'll remember it forever.

Except for my knees, I can stand or walk or even ride a bike reasonably well (twenty miles on my bike is not a problem) but any kind of climbing is pretty much out of the question if it's for more than a few minutes at the most.

I used to scuba dive, now my ears won't let me go that deep any more so I snorkel and take lots of pretty pictures.

Not interested in bungee or sky diving, I've rappelled from helicopters and that was enough heights for me, thank you very much. :)

I wonder if they'll ever find Titus Oates, from Scott's Antarctic expedition, he just wandered out into a blizzard one morning and was never seen again..

I don't do a ton of dangerous things, but even skiing could get me killed (witness Natasha Richardson), but I'm most likely to get killed in the frickin traffic rotary near my house (which is an apparent death trap, although I've never seen an accident there) than any "adventurous" thing I want to do.

On edit: If I'm going to die, I want it to be while I'm doing something I enjoy, not in the frickin' traffic rotary. Let me die skiing, or driving my MG or whatever, not trying to get to the other side of the street.

I'm glad all my friends are poor.

in fact much of the money they make goes towards those things. they don't spend much on anything else.

why do people use cellphones while they drive?

I hope that she felt like she was flying, and that she never felt the impact.

When I was younger I thought this would have ended by now. Apparently not.

Truly scary as I went flying down the snowfield and couldn't see what was below. Luckily I had sturdy hiking boots with deep treads and dug in my heels---that saved me.