Cellphone while rock climbing? 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
Attached is a submission for a Darwin. The story can be found at the Juneau (Alaska) Empire (the capitol city newspaper). It was printed in the Ketchikan (Alaska) Daily News and followed by Alaska Public Radio. Here are the links. If Alaska Public Radio has archives, the story aired on their morning edition as it happened, on Monday, 7/29/02, 7/30/02, and today, 7/30/02. If those shows are available, they will be on real-audio.
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/index.html for the 29th, look for "Utah man fall to his death". for the 30th, look for "Weather clears for rescue of stranded climber".
At http://www.ketchikandailynews.com/archive/index.htm search for 7/30/02 story called "Recovering climber's body too risky: official".
At http://www.aprn.org/, I'm not sure if you can access previous programs, but click the links for Morning Edtion to listen.
Story: Cellphones while Rock Climbing?
Cell phones have certainly been a mixed blessing. Is there any driver who hasn’t experienced seeing the person ahead or alongside do something stupid while attempting to drive and talk at the same time? May of us are convinced cell phones may overtake alcohol as a cause of accidents and death on the highway. Distraction can be deadly.
Here in Alaska it isn’t much different, except that cell phone have allowed some rescues when they have been the only available means of communications – communication that couldn’t have happened if they didn’t exist. In Southeast Alaska, we don’t have roads, over 80% is screaming wilderness, towns are many hours apart by the State’s "road system" – the Alaska State Ferries. Many of the ferries have staterooms – but people still end up sleeping in recliner chairs or pitching tents on the back decks because to the long time between destinations. So help can be far away.
But on Friday, 726/02, it appears a cell phone was an accessory to a death of a rock climber.
Rock climbing is an inherently dangerous sport – and I admit to admiring those with the skills and strength and will to participate. We have some pretty spectacular mountains here in the Alaskan panhandle. The Coast Range is also the border between Canada and us. Just surveying that border back at the turn of the last century produced some heroic acts for those that ventured into the white-area of the maps, climbed mountains with plate-glass cameras, and essentially inventing aerial photography from the ground.
One border turning-point they never climbed was the Devil’s Thumb Northeast of the Norwegian fishing community of Petersburg. It looks just like a vertical thumb sticking up into the sky – there is no easy slope from any side. It is over 9000 plus feet, and its base may start at less than 1000 feet. Just seen on the horizon it is spectacular enough. It was first climbed in 1946, there were 37 attempts since, and 14 successful assaults. Part of the problem is the climate. This is "temperate rainforest", where towns get up to 162 inches of rain a year. Back in the mountains, that means many feet of snow and the weather that goes with it.
One of the tenets of Rock Climbing on mountains of this difficulty is teamwork, safety, and belaying. Even with communications, between weather and distance and terrain, help may be days away – or longer. Yet Mr. Marc Springer, 30, of Layton, Utah, left his team behind to climb solo "to improve reception on his cell phone." According to Alaska Public Radio, he had climbed 50 feet up from the base camp at 7000 feet, disturbed a rock, started a landslide, and fell to be buried under rock and "boulders so big there was no way we could move them". As of 7/31/02 authorities are waiting a break in the weather to bring in an independent expert to decide if it is worth the risk to try to retrieve the body.
To quote the newspaper, the other climbers were informed of the prospect of leaving the body…. "They kind of agree that Springer was a pretty avid climber and in a way, it was fitting that he died doing what he loved. They felt like he’s buried up on the mountain."
So, seems like Mr. Springer nominated himself. Ignoring all safety rules for an impatient need to get on the cell phone goes beyond the calculated dangers of rock climbing.
looseleif
No electrons were harmed in the creation, transmission or reading of this
email. However, many were excited and some may well have enjoyed the experience. Submitted on 07/31/2002
Submitted by:
Anonymous
Reference:
see story. Juneau Empire.
Copyright © 2002 DarwinAwards.com
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