Earlier this week, a girl in the midwest fell thirty feet while climbing in a restricted area. The area in question was a silica-based bluff. Silica is a crumbly, sandy material, and does not hold up well to climbing. We hope and pray for a speedy recovery, but we should also take a lesson from this-if you’re going to hurt yourself, do it taking a calculated risk, not a dumb one. This is a subjective term, but try to err on the side of discretion, no matter how minimal that discretion might be.
While I am usually not one to advocate “following the rules”, I will say that if you decide to trespass or ignore any other urgent signage, you might want to use some discretion. Some keep out signs are posted because something actually is a bad idea. So take a look around-you might see why someone would think that climbing in the area is a bad idea. Even if the danger isn’t readily apparent and you choose to proceed, do so with extreme caution. Someone felt it was too dangerous to climb, so try to figure out why.
It’s usually accidents such as this that make noobs ask the question “Isn’t climbing dangerous?”, which is a pain to have to overcome. Don’t be dumb. It makes us all look bad.
2 comments:
Ok, I've lived by the "calculated risks rule" and while there have been some close calls, it has worked for me! Thank Billy
I agree! What I think is dumb is when someone gets hurt trespassing then they turn around a sue the owners, I mean COME ON! So rediculous!
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