For the last week we've all been kept abreast of the search (or inability thereof) for 3 missing hikers on Oregon's Mt. Hood....and I can't help but ask why it is such a big story.
For the first 4-5 days it was in the news, the story was "3 men missing on Mt. Hood, search crews can't go up due to weather" There was nothing to report, there was nothing anyone could do, and yet it was given plenty of air-time. It's not like the Natalee Holloway bonanza from last year when it may have been possible that someone had been in Aruba and seen something and keeping it in the media kept pressure on law enforcement to try to find her (although why and how we decided to focus on her particular case is another question altogether). In this situation, there was nothing we could do but wait for the weather to clear up.
When it did, the rangers found the first body. And the Sheriff held a press conference and said "We failed them."
What?
You failed them? You didn't tell them to go up on that mountain in the middle of December, you didn't create a winter snowstorm, the likes of which crop up every winter, you didn't do anything but get prepared to try to help them as soon as you could. You, sir, didn't fail anyone; they failed themselves. They failed their families. They are to blame, not you, Sheriff. These guys were not James Kim, braving the elements in attempt to save his family. That guy proudly went to his death, and is deserving of the hero label applied to him. They knew the risks of the task they were undertaking and they chose to go anyway. Not out necessity, it was for fun, for recreation. These guys were selfish.
It is selfish to take a trip up to one of the more dangerous peaks in the Western US in the middle of December with a storm on the horizon. It's not like it came out of nowhere, the northwest has been pounded by storm after storm all fall; Washington and Oregon are reporting record rainfall, and as temperatures drop, rain becomes snow, which makes traversing a mountain particularly difficult. To not consider that you could get stranded and leave your families alone, and force rescue workers to give up their Christmas and put themselves in harm's way to try to find you is incredibly myopic.
These guys should have had some restraint and common sense and climbed the mountain in the summer. Leaving behind families, wives, children, etc is just unacceptable. Oh, but they wanted to climb it in winter. Big deal, you don't always get to do what you want to do. That's part of being a grown up. You have to be responsible.
Don't get me wrong, I was hoping they would come out of it alive somehow, I wish death on no person, but I don't think what they chose to do was responsible and whatever befell/befalls them, it is of their own doing.
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