"However, this Mt. Hood-in-Feb. thing kind of reminds me of those a******s who watch their house slide off a cliff every year and can't figure out why no insurance company will cover them. Just my $.02."
Gibsonfan, I don't wanna pick on you - a lot of people have this attitude and I just want to address it.
That said, I am tired of hearing the uneducated public (i.e., those who are non-climbers and non-mountaineers) keep saying things to the effect of "oh serve's 'em right, they shouldn't be on the mountain in winter."
Just to let you know where I'm coming from: I have been on Mt. Hood 3 times this winter via various routes and summited just a month ago. I'm up there and other mountains in the northwest most winters, springs and summers; I've been climbing for ~12 years. It is common knowledge in the climbing community that winter is the safest time to climb some routes. There are many reasons for this: Crevasses are generally covered by stable snow bridges, there's enough ice and snow to place anchors in, and the rocks are (more) securely frozen together. Different times of year and different weather patterns are optimal for different routes depending on topography, geology, etc. Sometimes a casual route in the winter will be a death route in the summer and vis-versa. Part of the adventure of climbing is learning about how the weather relates to these conditions and developing a special knowledge about the mountain.
Climbing is my passion, my inspiration for staying in shape, and a social activity. Climbing has taken me through some of the most intense survival situations I hope to experience but have never needed rescue. ...Now the last thing I want is some bureaucrat who knows nothing about climbing telling me when/where/what I can or can't climb.
I guess the difference here is that you haven't needed a rescue?
If these incidents keep occurring, be rest assured, you WILL have those beauracrats telling you when you can climb, and where, and how.
So, my point still stands, it must be about Safety and Prevention. Not "fighting the man" or those who know nothing about climbing, they are the ones you need to be friends with. You don't need to convince SAR, climbers and outdoorsmen, that everything is cool, you need to convince "City hall".
So far I haven't heard anything about WHAT can help prevent these mishaps in the future. As far as I am concerned it's all Spilled Milk by the time we hear about it in the news, it's the next one we should be focussed on preventing.
Maybe it's climbers having to pass a basic safety course?
Then there are permits and liscensing...
The more these stories appear in the public eye, the more pressure there will be for all these things.
Here in WSS you probably have the "best case secenario" as everyone supports the outdoors and recreation. Imagine what the sheeple think?
The tree huggers will want it shut down because they don't believe we should distrub nature t all, the sheeple are simply afraid, the lawyers will worry that by letting people climb it will somehow indicate liability, and the anti-tax nuts will cite the cost of rescue. I'm not saying I agree with them, but, that is what climbers will be faced with, as stories become more common place.
The same little old ladies petitioning for gun control, will be the ones who want it shut down, proving it's dangerous won't be too difficult, the media is doing that for them.
As a gun owner I am critical of the way people mis-use firearms, because it threatens my Constitutional rights.
I am not inferring these folks on Mt. Hood committed a crime, but it is in the climbing communities best interest to look into it, and keep the sheeple happy.
I still haven't heard anything reagarding Root Cause Anlaysis of the mishap.
Don't take me serious, I'm Cajun.
