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Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them

cnn.com

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Re: Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them

#41

Post by deep_merge »

carlmr wrote: post #18
sizzzzlerz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a fascinating story and the persistance of the author in trying to find the family is remarkable but its totally different than this story. The Germans were completely unprepared for their adventure without the correct clothing, not enough water, and apparently little or no knowledge of where they were going or where they were. The family in this story were prepared, knew exactly where they were going and where…

I think this is almost a phenomenon. Europeans have trouble imagining the vastness and untouchedness of American national parks. In Europe almost all hiking trails are close to civilization and well-marked. If you expect the same in America you're in for a surprise.

Is there any data related Parks injuries/deaths that includes nationality? If not, this thread is all anecdote.

Re: Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them

#42

Post by arethuza »

marvin wrote: post #38
carlmr wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is almost a phenomenon. Europeans have trouble imagining the vastness and untouchedness of American national parks. In Europe almost all hiking trails are close to civilization and well-marked. If you expect the same in America you're in for a surprise.

I don’t think it’s necessarily a Europe thing, it’s just as likely a tourist thing. When you’re a city-dwelling tourist, you don’t know danger and certainly not the local dangers. Dangers at home are considered part of your upbringing, overgeneralized as absolute facts of the world, while dangers elsewhere are unknown and unexpected. I’ve seen the same in Norway; tourists from all over the world getting lost in the m…

I think its mostly just a "not a local" thing - I've met quite a few people in the Scottish mountains who had got quite a shock at weather conditions even though our hills are tiny compared to the Alps or elsewhere.

A 1000m hill can't be dangerous, right?

Re: Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them

#43

Post by JshWright »

gardnerbickford wrote: post #23

I don't mean to be rude but: why is this here? It would be a neat project to map out the changes in the types of stories and comments on HN over time. Over the years, HN has grown more and more in the direction of reddit front page and become less and less like an irc channel where people talk about technology.

> less like an irc channel

How many IRC channels have you hung out in? Every channel I've ever been in with any sort of community has stuff like this pop up pretty regularly (things that may be "off-topic" by some definition, but are interesting, and spark some interesting conversation).

Channels where there are hard and fast rules about keeping the discussion strictly "on-topic" don't tend to be channels I hang out in. The same would be true for HN.

Re: Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them

#44

Post by carlmr »

deep_merge wrote: post #41
carlmr wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is almost a phenomenon. Europeans have trouble imagining the vastness and untouchedness of American national parks. In Europe almost all hiking trails are close to civilization and well-marked. If you expect the same in America you're in for a surprise.

Is there any data related Parks injuries/deaths that includes nationality? If not, this thread is all anecdote.

I couldn't find any, but I think it would be an interesting hypothesis to study.

Re: Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them

#45

Post by postscapes1 »

gardnerbickford wrote: post #23

I don't mean to be rude but: why is this here? It would be a neat project to map out the changes in the types of stories and comments on HN over time. Over the years, HN has grown more and more in the direction of reddit front page and become less and less like an irc channel where people talk about technology.

To be fair, the article mentioned the search team used night vision goggles and FLIR (forward looking infrared) technology :)

Re: Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them

#47

Post by amadeusw »

gardnerbickford wrote: post #23

I don't mean to be rude but: why is this here? It would be a neat project to map out the changes in the types of stories and comments on HN over time. Over the years, HN has grown more and more in the direction of reddit front page and become less and less like an irc channel where people talk about technology.

It reminds the tech afictionados that there exists real value in primitive technology.

If all you have is a cell phone with no battery or no reception, you can't get help, you can't hail rides etc.

Re: Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them

#48

Post by yardie »

savingGrace wrote: post #46

Why could they not turn around and go back the way they came? I am not a hiker.

Because descent is usually trickier than ascent. If you've ever climbed down a ladder missing a rung there is that brief moment of free fall where you assume where you're going to land. But if you're on a rain slick, moss covered trail a controlled descent can be difficult even under ideal circumstances.

Re: Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them

#49

Post by kpennell »

carlmr wrote: post #18
sizzzzlerz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a fascinating story and the persistance of the author in trying to find the family is remarkable but its totally different than this story. The Germans were completely unprepared for their adventure without the correct clothing, not enough water, and apparently little or no knowledge of where they were going or where they were. The family in this story were prepared, knew exactly where they were going and where…

I think this is almost a phenomenon. Europeans have trouble imagining the vastness and untouchedness of American national parks. In Europe almost all hiking trails are close to civilization and well-marked. If you expect the same in America you're in for a surprise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_of_Kris_Kremers_and_Lis...

This is a really similar one. REALLY SAD.

Re: Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them

#50

Post by kpennell »

bedhead wrote: post #19
carlmr wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is almost a phenomenon. Europeans have trouble imagining the vastness and untouchedness of American national parks. In Europe almost all hiking trails are close to civilization and well-marked. If you expect the same in America you're in for a surprise.

I just returned from a three week RV trip to some of the national parks out west, including Death Valley. Two of the things I noticed were (1) Europeans outnumbered Americans in the RV parks and (2) Europeans seemed far more inclined to break the national park rules. At one point we were in a guided jeep tour in Canyonlands which is some seriously treacherous driving on cliffside switchbacks. An Escalade sped by us a…

yep, confirming all my biases here.
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