Last Wishes and Being Left on the Mountain
Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 5:38 am
In a nutshell, here are the questions that I'm pondering for a worst case 'what if' scenario. I'll rant some more about them below.
I would especially be interested on hearing thoughts from those involved with SAR. During the Shasta aftermath I learned a lot about SAR vs. recoveries and what can be said to the family and the press, and somewhat as to certain situations where people who died were left on Mt. Shasta, so I know these questions may be affected by bureaucratic policies as well.
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Just to start things off, I have been thinking about this long before Tom's death, but the events on Mt Shasta have me thinking even more seriously about specifying such wishes about this issue to friends, family, and maybe even in a will of sorts.
For context, before Tom's death I was thinking more hypothetically about this after a friend of a friend disappeared in an avalanche in the Andes two weeks after I met him, and after the two mysterious deaths above 17,000 ft on Denali the same year that I climbed the peak (the man who died on the summit was left buried there). Two years prior, on my first trip to the Alaska Range, to the Ruth Gorge, the organizer of our 3-man expedition made it clear to us that if he were to fall into a crevasse and rescuing him seemed to endanger us, that his wish was that we would leave him, despite him leaving behind a wife and child.
Despite the morbid and seemingly hypothetical nature of this question, and aside from discussing such a decision with family, I feel more than ever that I should be knowledgeable and clear on this issue with myself and loved ones, and to know how reasonable it is. If I were to perish in a more remote region, I would wish to be left/buried on the mountain rather than to have others risk their lives to recover my body, and I'm sure that that decision would be easy to abide by and would require little more than notifying the people that I am climbing with.
I've wondered about such a predicament in the lower 48 states, though. For example, 8 or more people risked their lives and a military helicopter to recover the body of my close friend. Regarding my feelings of initiating a SAR or recovery and the risk it has to rescuers and the cost it has to society, I know that if it had been me up there, I would either have requested to be left there indefinitely, or if I were close enough to the surface to melt out, that I be recovered in later season when such a recovery could be done on foot or in more stable weather for helicopter flights. After hearing all to often about devastating helicopter crashes in an attempt for a SAR - whether it truly needed a helicopter or not - I know that I would hate the idea of one being sent up for recovering me.
- 1. What are the legal ramifications for this, both for those left behind, and for the agencies that operate in the area?
2. Could this be done in the lower 48 states if it were contextually appropriate and specified a priori to family or a climbing partner?
3. How about just being left on the mountain until a recovery on foot could be achieved?
4. How could such wishes be adequately recorded such that the wishes are respected by the local authorities?
I would especially be interested on hearing thoughts from those involved with SAR. During the Shasta aftermath I learned a lot about SAR vs. recoveries and what can be said to the family and the press, and somewhat as to certain situations where people who died were left on Mt. Shasta, so I know these questions may be affected by bureaucratic policies as well.
-----------------------------
Just to start things off, I have been thinking about this long before Tom's death, but the events on Mt Shasta have me thinking even more seriously about specifying such wishes about this issue to friends, family, and maybe even in a will of sorts.
For context, before Tom's death I was thinking more hypothetically about this after a friend of a friend disappeared in an avalanche in the Andes two weeks after I met him, and after the two mysterious deaths above 17,000 ft on Denali the same year that I climbed the peak (the man who died on the summit was left buried there). Two years prior, on my first trip to the Alaska Range, to the Ruth Gorge, the organizer of our 3-man expedition made it clear to us that if he were to fall into a crevasse and rescuing him seemed to endanger us, that his wish was that we would leave him, despite him leaving behind a wife and child.
Despite the morbid and seemingly hypothetical nature of this question, and aside from discussing such a decision with family, I feel more than ever that I should be knowledgeable and clear on this issue with myself and loved ones, and to know how reasonable it is. If I were to perish in a more remote region, I would wish to be left/buried on the mountain rather than to have others risk their lives to recover my body, and I'm sure that that decision would be easy to abide by and would require little more than notifying the people that I am climbing with.
I've wondered about such a predicament in the lower 48 states, though. For example, 8 or more people risked their lives and a military helicopter to recover the body of my close friend. Regarding my feelings of initiating a SAR or recovery and the risk it has to rescuers and the cost it has to society, I know that if it had been me up there, I would either have requested to be left there indefinitely, or if I were close enough to the surface to melt out, that I be recovered in later season when such a recovery could be done on foot or in more stable weather for helicopter flights. After hearing all to often about devastating helicopter crashes in an attempt for a SAR - whether it truly needed a helicopter or not - I know that I would hate the idea of one being sent up for recovering me.