The Hardest Climb

May 2, 2022 6:00 AM

A group of outdoor adventurers are revolutionizing how their sports treat the survivors of tragic accidents
posted by Etrigan (9 comments total)

For USians, the recently established AAC Grief Fund ..Here's an . article. about how it started.
posted by Dashy at 6:13 AM on May 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

The resonance of the name of the group is really touching.
posted by PussKillian at 6:39 AM on May 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

This is just a guess, based a bit on how many of the people mentioned in that story are women, but I wonder if the increase in the number of women participating in these activities is part of the increase in focus on mental health and emotional wellness? It seems to be a very necessary change.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:06 AM on May 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

Thank you for sharing this. I am glad this group exists.
posted by brainwane at 7:23 AM on May 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Thanks for posting. I’ve been climbing for over 20 years and have been lucky enough to not have lost anyone close though we have lost a few people in the community. Helping people process grief while doing what they love is so important.
posted by misterpatrick at 8:47 AM on May 2, 2022

Jacquilynne, pretty likely.
posted by Dashy at 8:57 AM on May 2, 2022

This is good. Since moving to Utah I've seen a lot of local news coverage and read accident reports of people killed in avalanches, ski accidents, rock climbing accidents etc. A lot of times it really is young healthy happy people who witness a sibling/friend/partner die or get horribly injured - and go from time of their lives to tragedy in a second. And often it seems the event happens in the same industry the survivors work in day to day...which must be traumatizing to go back to being a liftie or a rental shop ski tuner days after seeing a friend killed on skis as an example.

I saw a few fairly serious ski accidents this season, including one young kid who just totally lost control straight lining on a steep bumpy run, got air, and flew at high speed 40-50 feet downhill to a crash that spun them for a few hundred feet further, and need a ski patrol urgent sleigh ride down. Noped out the rest of the day after seeing that - and had to go take some mental health time - just absolutely felt powerless to help in anyway.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 9:56 AM on May 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm so glad that this is getting more attention. I took a mountaineering class, but quit when I realized how common serious accidents are. One person from my class group of about a dozen people fell 200 feet and had to learn to walk again within a year after our course, and this was through a group recognized as safety-focused. Doing things in remote areas is inherently dangerous, and a lot more folks have started getting outdoors with the pandemic and gotten themselves into bad situations because they didn't understand the risks.

The other part of this issue is talking about group dynamics and how to make good and safe decisions / help people to know their limits. This has been a big gap in outdoor education, IMO, and a cause of accidents in a variety of outdoor activities I've been involved in, thankfully nothing severe.
posted by momus_window at 10:17 AM on May 3, 2022

Thanks for the link. I love stories about mountaineering. Citing Into Thin Air is kind of a cliche, I think, but I’ve read a ton of other books since it got me hooked. Most recently: really enjoyed Mark Synnott’s The Third Pole; Jim Davidson’s The Next Everest was pretty good too.

A big part of the appeal of those stories is the pure effort and grit, putting every fiber of your being into reaching your goal. If something happens (and you’ve survived the initial incident), you don’t have a choice — gotta keep putting one foot in front of the other. The stakes are absolute.

(Books about extreme cave exploration scratch the same itch, by the way. Check out Bill Stone and the books about his expeditions. In a cave, something happens and you might as well be on the moon as far as rescue goes. And cave diving! Oh my god!) (so yeah, the Thai soccer team rescue hit on all cylinders.)

Downside: definitely feels like morbid voyeurism.

It’s great to see survivors getting the help they need. Their stories don’t really get followed up on in these pop books.
posted by liet at 2:23 PM on May 5, 2022