The Rules of the Game - Le Regole del Gioco

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The Rules of the Game - Le Regole del Gioco

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The Rules of the Game - Le Regole del Gioco

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Activities: Mountaineering

Page By: gabriele

Created/Edited: Aug 7, 2008 / Aug 20, 2008

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the Rules of the Game

le Regole del Gioco

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the Rules of the Game

Evey year, when the "good" season comes, we can read about the "killer-mountain", about tragedies on the mountains and (tanks to the power of media) we can see "live" the spectacular (commercial) reports of a rescue (if all is OK) or to the recovery of (more or less) unlucky climbers

And each time we must read and listen to the comments of the so-called (bigheaded) "specialists": people speaking and passing opinions with no knowledge about the sites and the situations of the accident and, basing on theories absorbed from books and magazines, make judgements about the more or less wrong behaviour of the unlucky climbers ...

In the name of "money" some mountains turned to a big business, eager occasions to pump, to the unaware and unprepared climbers/hikers, a big quantity of money, directly (guides, porters, sherpas) or indirectly (agencies, tourist offices etc.)

Now, at the moment, trips to Himalaya and Karakorum are very trendy : a good amount of money can grant you the summit.
No matter if you're not experienced or prepared, there are some wretched people that, for few $ and using wangled in a botched way gear, start to post fixed ropes, advanced camps and any kind of facilities (now in the high camps only bidet and privèe are missing, maybe ...)
Too often the "customer" has to provide the minimum performance necessary to put his steps in a marked and arranged track ..

Same situation happens on the other most famous mountains in the other parts of the world :
the perfect example is the Mont Blanc: Chamonix is the best climbing-commercial centre all over the world (chapeau to its marketing managers): from the whole wide world, every summer, hundreds of people that, often, have only experienced the pleasantness of walking on their, more or less high, home mountains, come there to climb the top summit of the mountain group that has the world record of deads among its visitors ..

.. people often arriving equipped of the most modern alpinistic gear, often used out of turn:

how comes in use an ice-axe studied for icefalls climbing if you're going to walk on slopes less the 30° steep: just to compel you to walk "inclined" so that you can't be in that vertical position that allows to be safer against the glissades

how come in use the crampons for extreme ice climbing if you're going to walk on snow: just to have a snowball under them, that, with the not balanced posture due to the iceaxe, facilitates the typical Sylvester's cat (looney Tunes) tumble on the living room curtains...

But, if someone hurts himself, mountain is always guilty (too steep, bad snow, falling stones etc.) ...

There are 3 kind and reasons of death in the mountain (choose the sorting you like better):

a sudden problem of health, not all are always fit : the byorithm teory should be considered

an "imponderable" event : when it happens something that we know that could happen but we decided to risk anyway

the unpreparedness (better known as imbecility in the Alpine Rescue Teams : the word is bad but who joined the teams knows how often is used) causing a distraction or an overestimation.

Mountain is not a playgroung, there are some rules that MUST be obeyed:

never think that others (more experienced) can solve all your problems: you must be ready to come back alone in every moment from everywhere

never think that gear can solve your inexperience or incapacity problems

never think that Alpine Rescue is always ready and fast (even Chamonix's one: the 342 hour on Jorasses of Desmaison and the Henry and Vicendon tragedy can teach something ..)

never think that equipment can support you when weather turns to very bad : the number of deads for exhaustion is bigger than the one due to tumbles (often due to exhaustion)

Only in rock climbing the modern (nuts, friends and similar gear) materials have changed the risk coefficients : when only iron pegs and wooden wedges (difficult to place and more difficult to take out = expensive) were used, in the 4° (UIAA = 5.5) pitches we never used them, sometimes, only on very popular routes you could find one of them just before a specially exposed passage : firs rule was NEVER DROP !
But this is another topic ...

Just to end :
When someone dies on the mountain we have to say NOTHING : we were not there and don't know what happened and why

le Regole del Gioco

Ogni anno, quando viene la "buona" stagione, leggiamo di "montagna assassina" di incidenti in montagna e magari (potenza dei media) assistiamo in diretta alle spettacolari (e commerciali) riprese di un salvataggio (se tutto va bene) o di un recupero di (più o meno) sfortunati "alpinisti..

E, ogni volta, ci tocca subire i commenti dei cosiddetti (presuntuosi) "esperti" : gente che parla e trancia giudizi semza avere la minima conoscenza dei posti e delle situazioni dove l'incidente è avvenuto e che, in base a teorie assimilate su libri e riviste, si erge a giudice del comportamento più o meno errato degli sventurati..

In nome del "soldo" alcune montagne si son trasformate in business, occasioni ghiotte per spillare, agli ignari e impreparati alpinisti/escursionisti della domenica, una più o meno grossa quantità di denaro, direttamente (guide, portatori, sherpas ecc.) o indirettamente (agenzie, uffici turistici ecc.).

In questo periodo sono molto di moda le ascensioni in Himalaya e nel Karakorum : una bella somma di denaro vi garantisce la vetta.
Non importa se non siete preparati o esperti, ci sono dei meschinelli che, per 4 soldi e con un equipaggiamento rimediato alla bell'e meglio, si buttano avanti a predisporre corde fisse, campi avanzati e facilities di vario tipo (in alta quota ormai mancano solo il bidet e il club privèe, forse ...) dopodichè il "cliente pagante" deve limitarsi a fornire quel minimo di prestazione fisica necessaria a mettere i piedi nel tracciato ben battuto e sistemato..

La stessa cosa avviene, ancora più in grande stile, per le più famose montagne del resto del mondo :
un esempio perfetto è il Monte Bianco: Chamonix è il più grande centro commercio-alpinistico del mondo (chapeau ai responsabili del marketing della località): da tutto il mondo arrivano, ogni estate, centinaia di persone che finora hanno solo esperimentato la piacevolezza del camminare sui pendii tranquilli delle montagne, più o meno alte, domestiche e che decidono di salire la massima vetta del gruppo montuoso che ha il record di mortalità fra i suoi frequentatori ..

.. Persone che arrivano dotate della più moderna e costosa attrezzatura alpinistica che spesso utilizzano a sproposito:

a cosa serve una piccozza da cascate di ghiaccio se devo percorrere pendii innevati che non superano i 30° di pendenza: a camminare molto piegati in avanti con il risultato che invece di stare in bell'equilibro verticale sto quasi tangente alla neve, pronto a scivolare ?

a cosa servono i ramponi da ghiaccio estremo se devo camminare sulla neve : ad avere, sotto, un bello zoccolo di neve che, insieme alla posizione di non equilibrio datami dalla piccozza estrema, favorisce la scivolata tipica di Gatto Silvestro sulle tende del soggiorno..

E, quando poi qualcuno si fa male la colpa è sempre della montagna !!!.

Esistono tre tipi e causali di morte in montagna (metteteli nell'ordine che preferite):

un improvviso problema di salute fisica, non tutti sono sempre al massimo della forma : la teoria dei bioritmi andrebbe presa in considerazione

l'evento quasi imponderabile : quando capita quel qualcosa che si sa che avrebbe potuto succedere ma si è deciso ugualmente di rischiare

l'impreparazione (o meglio imbecillità) di chi si distrae o si è sopravvalutato - la parola è cruda ma chi ha frequentato gli ambienti del Soccorso Alpino sa che questa parola è normalmente molto usata (bonariamente) quando si commenta un recupero effettuato..

Ma la montagna non è un terreno di gioco, ha le sue regole che devono essere rispettate :

non salire facendo conto sugli altri, più esperti, : devi essere in grado di tornare indietro anche da solo, dovunque !

non pensare che l'attrezzatura sia in grado di sopperire l'inesperienza e/o l'incapacità

non pensare che il Soccorso sia sempre pronto e rapido a intervenire (anche quello di Chamonix : le 342 ore sulle Jorasses di Desmaison e la tragedia di Henry e Vicendon insegnino ...

non pensare che l'equipaggiamento ti metta al riparo in caso di tempo decisamente brutto : il numero dei morti per sfinimento è maggiore di quello dei morti per caduta (che spesso avviene quando uno è sfinito).

Solo nell'arrampicata su roccia l'avvento dei modermi sistemi di assicurazione (nuts, friends e similari) ha mutato i coefficienti di rischio : quando si usavano solo chiodi e cunei di legno (difficili da mettere e ancor più difficili da togliere = costosi) nei tiri di corda fino al 4° grado (compreso) non si usavano rinvii intermedi, si trovava magari qualche chiodo prima dei passaggi più esposti : la prima regola era : non cadere !.
Ma questo è un altro argomento ...

Per finire : Quando qualcuno muore in montagna noi non dobbiamo dire NULLA : non c'eravamo e non sappiamo cosa è successo e perchè

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Viewing: 1-20 of 20

ganesh70

Bell'articolo

Voted 10/10

Condivido il tuo punto di vista e anch'io non sopporto questi "esperti" di montagna ( tanto di moda d'estate o dopo tragedie come quelle del Nanga Parbat o del K2 ) che danno giudizi su tutto e consigli generici ridicoli. Molti poi mettono tutti gli incidenti che accadono in montagna ( da quelli degli escursionisti inesperti o dei cercatori di funghi a quelli dei rocciatori e degli alpinisti più preparati) in un grande calderone, concludendo l'intervento con la classica frase da bar "la montagna non perdona...".
Sono d'accordo che il silenzio sarebbe la cosa migliore, è giusto dare la notizia ma poi bisogna fermarsi lì, ogni caso è diverso e chi non era sul luogo dell'incidente e non conosceva bene la vittima non può dare nessun giudizio.

Posted Aug 8, 2008 5:52 am

Lolli

true.

Voted 10/10

"When someone dies on the mountain we have to say NOTHING : we were not there and don't know what happened and why"

Reserve judgement.

Posted Aug 9, 2008 5:07 pm

mvs

nice article

Voted 10/10

with an experienced point of view. I did laugh out loud about the icefall climbing crampons and axes used on 30-degree glacier slopes. I've wondered about that too!

Posted Aug 9, 2008 5:21 pm

Mihai Tanase

Risk and rescue

Voted 10/10

I agree with you, Gabriele, including your conclusion : "..When someone dies on the mountain we have to say NOTHING : we were not there and don't know what happened and why..."

But when your are talking about rescue, Henry & Vincendon ( on mont Blanc ) and Desmaison & Gousseault ( on Grandes Jorasses ) those examples are wrong. Why ?

Concerning Henry and Vincendon, in 1956 there was no rescue team as we have today. A havy military helicopter with unexperienced pilots was involved in this action, the weather conditons was quite bad. Bonatii explain that very well in his
"Mountains of my life".

In 1971, René Desmaison ( and Serge Gousseault ) was victim of the competition between him and the Chamonix guides company after the rescue of german climbers in Petit Dru : Desmaison, Gary Hamming, Gilles Bodin and some others decided to follow an other route to help the germans. They was in a total opposition with the "official" position of the rescue team, lead by Maurice Herzog, but they was right. Thanks to Desmaison and friends, germans was bring down safe. Then, Desmaison was excluded from the guide company...Later, Gilles Bodin with his brother Patrice, Patrick Cordier Jean Afanassieff created an independent guide company http://www.guides-du-montblanc.com/

It's "funny" to say that today, but the guy who came down from the top of Jorasses landed there from the helicopter ( the Allouette helicopter with the pilot Alain Frebault came from Grenoble, more than 200 km far from Chamonix ! Frebault never flyied in the Alps, and nobody before him landed at this altitude ! ) was Desmaison competitior during Dru's german rescue, Gérard Devouassoux.

Grandes Jorasses's rescue operation was the real begining of helicopter's use for rescue in Mont Blanc range and this explain why french gendarmes are the best. I know by my self, they bring me down once :)

Nothing more to say about equipement, it's so true :(

Posted Aug 10, 2008 4:42 am


	gabriele	Re: Risk and rescue
	Hasn't voted	sorry, my examples were not to be intended as an accusation, just a remind ...
		Posted Aug 11, 2008 1:53 am

chris.mueller

Well written

Voted 10/10

Totally agree with you.

Chris

Posted Aug 10, 2008 7:07 am

Mihai Tanase

Risk and rescue

Voted 10/10

I never said the opposite, Gabriele :)

Posted Aug 11, 2008 11:22 am

lcarreau

Grande - Bravo!!

Voted 10/10

Sometimes, all of humanity tends to PAINT with a broad brush!
I find it true that the human spirit has no bounds. In reality,
it is Mother Nature that surrounds us; molding us into what we are today. Nice page, Gabriele!! -Larry of AZ

Posted Aug 11, 2008 6:31 pm

Namara	Rene Demaison
Hasn't voted	Great polemic. I agree with much of what you say. However, somethings are not well enough spelt out and even internet enquiries haven't helped. What happened to Rene Demaison that took 342 hours near Mont Blanc? Much obliged for information. Regards
	Posted Aug 22, 2008 5:31 pm


	gabriele	Re: Rene Desmaison
	Hasn't voted	There's a book about this story : 342 heures dans les Grandes Jorasses. While opening, in winter, a new route on the N wall of G.Jorasses, together with Serge Gousseault, the bad weather and a fall of stone that cut 1 of the ropes gave them big problems. Maurice Herzog, leader of the Rescue team, refused to take action: Gousseault died for exhaustion and Desmaison had to wait many days till an helicopter coming from Grenoble succeeded to land on the summit of G.Jorasses. See also, above, the comment of Mihai Tanase and this internet page
		Posted Aug 23, 2008 1:51 am

donhaller3

Good

Hasn't voted

"When someone dies on the mountain we have to say NOTHING : we were not there and don't know what happened and why"
Right. The recent death above Cooper Spur led to a comment from a search and rescue leader that the deceased "should have" been wearing a helmet. Probably, but what difference it would have made with a "watermelon sized" rock smacking somebody in the head is not apparent. Why torment survivors and relatives with remarks like this?

Posted Aug 28, 2008 8:39 pm


	gabriele	Re: Good
	Hasn't voted	it's always the same old story : "he is dead because was not as clever, skilled, competent as ME, I am the best, the one ecc." the EGO of stupid people is always ready to jump on every stage ... and, sometimes, even a kind of morbidity comes out the other ones just think : poor boy, it was his day ... who knows which will be mine ?
		Posted Aug 29, 2008 1:26 pm

Corax

Dead on

Voted 10/10

Good one!
A lot of people in categories "X, Y and Z" should read this one.

Posted Sep 6, 2008 11:10 am

klwagar

very interesting

Voted 10/10

I just got back from 3 weeks of climbing in that area. It was unbelievable the stuff I saw. Unprepared, overprepared (equipment), people attempting things that were way beyond their skills usually as a 2 person team, not paying attention to conditions etc. But in the end, I think you are right - when your time is up - your time is up and it doesn't matter. And dissecting often is just to no avail.

Posted Sep 6, 2008 11:50 am


	gabriele	Re: very interesting
	Hasn't voted	I think that the advertising about gear and adventure-travels can be considered guilty of many deaths on the mountains ... but each can make a choice, even the choice about where and when to die
		Posted Sep 7, 2008 3:18 am

Diveria

Accidents on the mountains

Voted 10/10

are easy news to sell, just like the one about serial killers natural disasters, etc...
I think that keeping respect is more important than bringing the news to people, this is the first rule that someone should follow to call himself a specialist.
A needed page, not only for this site.

Posted Sep 12, 2008 3:33 pm

mamo

Postillla

Hasn't voted

Ciao Gabriele, sono d'accordissimo su tutto quello che dici.
Aggiungerei anche un commento, magari cinico e crudo: credo che il numero di morti in montagna, rispetto alla quantità di persone che ci vanno, sia bassissimo. E se ti capita di andare in posti frequentati , te ne accorgi guardandoti intorno. La percentuale di persone che "vaga" per i monti, senza cognizione di causa (senza sapere DOVE SI TROVA) è nettamente superiore a quelli che in montagna ci vanno in maniera COSCIENTE .
ciao mamo

Posted Sep 20, 2008 2:31 am


	gabriele	Re: Postillla
	Hasn't voted	concordo ! ciao :)
		Posted Sep 20, 2008 3:25 pm

lucabanfi	There is no zero risk
Voted 10/10	I agree completely when you say "When someone dies on the mountain we have to say NOTHING : we were not there and don't know what happened and why" The problem is that people who do not climb or hike think that the risk should be zero, and if it is not is only because of unexperience. On the contrary, you probably agree with me that zero risk on a mountain does not exist, not even when you are a simple hiker, as I mostly am. So, while some accidents are probably due to unexperience, other are simply fatalities and, in those cases, it is not fair to blame the victims for that. As a proof, some accidents happened this year involved also expert guides.
	Posted Sep 20, 2008 11:24 am


	gabriele	Re: There is no zero risk
	Hasn't voted	I think that we could be almost allowed to blame the victim only if a member of Alpine Rescue hurts or dies while operating on an accident that we are absolutely sure was caused by a stupid behaviour. But the blame couldn't change anything ... so is useless
		Posted Sep 20, 2008 3:33 pm

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