Re: Deaths in National Parks

(not specifically Yosemite, so posted under General Discussion forum)

How do you explain park deaths? You can't.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/columnists/ct-talk-brotman-yosemite-0725-20110725,0,2421265.column

....The boulder I sat on to admire the view turned out to be loose. It rolled, breaking my hip and pelvis. It trapped my leg and dragged me toward the edge of the canyon a few feet away. And it would have taken me over the edge if a skinny pinyon pine at the edge hadn't stopped it....

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Last week, to a small group of people, I made the same observation as that seen in the fourth and third paragraphs from the end of the article. One person went completely wacko/defensive over my comment.

I'm sure more people die on the streets of Chicago each day then in National Parks.

different environment, different risks, different learned survival skills

and completely irrelevant to this topic.

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szalkowski
Last week, to a small group of people, I made the same observation as that seen in the fourth and third paragraphs from the end of the article. One person went completely wacko/defensive over my comment.

About what? That people who visit National Parks in large groups don't do their homework beforehand?

A lot of people tend to let their collective guard down while on vacation. There was a woman who lost sight of where she was while taking a photo in Yellowstone Canyon and fell off a cliff. Unfortunately these things happen.

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y_p_w
A lot of people tend to let their collective guard down while on vacation. There was a woman who lost sight of where she was while taking a photo in Yellowstone Canyon and fell off a cliff. Unfortunately these things happen.

I think a good number of people are just absent-minded and oblivious to their surroundings in general, vacation or no vacation. It's just that out in the wilderness this inattention to one's surrounding can be fatal, unfortunately.