They point at imagined or minor hypocrisies on the left to make themselves feel like their own is ok or that everyone is a hypocrite

Unfortunately I’ve met a few.

I was a search and rescue mountaineer/EMT for a decade. There are bigots in the field. You get a lot of “conservatives” with military or law endorsement backgrounds.

Also, to take something like this down, you’d start from the top and rappel down to it. It’s how they do most rescues on El Cap (or any cliff for that matter)

You’re spot on about wisdom, but it’s not like people in non combat jobs aren’t there to support the mission of killing people the government wants killed. Just because they aren’t holding the gun, it doesn’t mean they aren’t sharing responsibility for the bullet

Suit yourself

Do you have the numbers you ran 6 years ago? I’m not that organized.

I used to be one of the people that came to rescue, or recover, people who fell down cliffs. (I was a search and rescue mountaineer/EMT for a decade)

I was speaking from experience.

Your conjecture is not accurate.

Packs break, clothes rip, some stuff stops falling on a ledge that other stuff bounces off of and keeps falling, etc. rarely, but not unheard of, a body part will get caught up on something while the body is falling fast enough to rip that part off and keep falling…

That would probably increase the probability of it staying with you, but clothes can easily get shredded by a big fall, and something causing a protrusion in the clothes would be a likely place for a rock to catch and tear…

I’m guessing you haven’t seen a lot of people who feel hundreds of get down a mountain. I’ve seen about a dozen (I used to be a search and rescue mountaineer/EMT). I stand by my statement.

I ran the numbers per hour on mountaineering (related to rock climbing, but not exactly the same) and driving is more dangerous as of about 6 years ago (when I ran the numbers).

I believe the fatality rates on rock climbing are similar, but don’t quote me on it.

The bottom line truth is, mountain recreation isn’t nearly as dangerous as people think it is.

Life is dangerous. Seriously, you can easily slip, fall, and die in your bathroom.

Statistics are how we determine how risky an activity is. Mountaineering and rock climbing are statistically safer than driving. Yes, driving is dangerous, but nobody says shit about not having compassion for those who die because they take a road trip.

All of those risks you mention associated with climbing exist, but you’re dramatically overestimating how common they are

I used to live upstairs from a couple with DV issues.

The victim was the 6’+ 200lb+ man in his 20s. The offender was a smaller woman. I felt so sorry for that guy. I’m sure people were reluctant to take him seriously, but she was unhinged when angry. Throwing pots and pans at him, pulling knives, etc…

I was a search and rescue mountaineer/EMT for a decade. I’m an engineer/analyst for my day job. I am good at math and interpreting data, interested in the mountains, and fascinated by risk/perceptions of risk.

The most dangerous part of most mountain trips is the drive to the trailhead. Driving is so much more dangerous than just about anything else in our society, but everyone does it all the time so most people never think about it.

Your attitude is only warranted for really high risk level activities, like wing suit base jumps. Rock climbing and mountaineering are generally quite safe compared to risks that most of Western society fully embraces.

After 400ft of falling, there’s not much guarantee that any gear is near you when you stop moving.

And yeah, they built most of the PLBs tough, but there aren’t exactly black box material either

I was a search and rescue mountaineer EMT for a decade in a very busy county.

This is good advice, but most people don’t do things risky enough to need one. The most important thing people who are less extreme can do is tell someone you trust where you’re going (including your planned route) and when they should worry that you haven’t returned (when to call for rescue). Do it for every hike. Stories like this one make headlines, but most rescues are for things like busted ankles.

They often have them in places where there’s little to no cell coverage.

Better than it would have been if we were voting for the greater evil.

This is a pretty gatekeepy take.

Generations are about your social cohort and shared experiences, not a calendar.

I think late X folks who got the internet in their teen years mostly fit in better with millennials than X. Being able to anonymously talk about anything with people from all over the world while still in your adolescence is something that most Gen X didn’t get, and I think that particular experience is critical for understanding the differences between X and millenial.

The boundary is nebulous enough that social scientists even came up with this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xennials

I was born in 78, and I definitely have a lot of X characteristics, but when I talk to other people my own age about things like the futility of working hard for recognition from society/employers it becomes really clear that I understand millenials a hell of a lot better than most gen X do…

I’m 1 year older than you and feel the same about fitting with millennials.

The most non millennial thing about me is really important though. I was already in my career when 9/11 happened. Having my foot in that door was huge.

Yup, and you can make people more conservative by blasting them with propaganda about how scary “the other” is.

They were worried about those things because they knew what they would do if they had the power.