Mount Fuji climber rescued twice

[buckworks]

Hey Ergo, this one is for you!

Stranded man airlifted from Mount Fuji — then rescued again days later after he returned to get his phone

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mount-fuji-climber-rescued-twice-returned-to-get-phone/

[ergophobe]

Classic!

True story. A friend on "helitack" (helicopter team for search, rescue and fire) was on a call to the top of El Capitan.

A hiker (not a climber) was suffering extreme fatigue and couldn't hike down so she called for a rescue. They deployed and put her in the chopper and as it lifted off, she realized that she was only a short ways from the summit and demanded to be put back down. The rescue team refused. She threatened to charge them with kidnapping. They were unmoved and dropped her in Valley. No criminal charges against the rescue team were ever forthcoming.

The thing is, millions of people go into the mountains every year and some portion of those have great ambition coupled with neither common sense nor fitness. Often, you can have any combo of two of those and be okay, but all three together is a problem.

[ergophobe]

Oh, here's another one for you that has some parallels with the My Fuji story.

A group of young Irish males hikes to the top of Yosemite Falls. They decide to stage a photo where it looks like one of them is falling into the water. He slips and DOES fall into the water and manages to scratch and scramble and get back on shore before going over the 1500' (450m) waterfall. Saved!

But then his buddy looks and realized he didn't get the photo. So they stage the fake photo again. A second time the guy goes in the water, but this time he does not manage to scratch and scramble his way out and goes over the falls.

According to a friend on SAR, when someone goes over the falls, by the time they start finding remains, usually the biggest pieces are about palm size and those are usually patches of clothing.  The pounding of the water doesn't leave much left.

According to the account in Death in Yosemite, alcohol was involved.

[ergophobe]

So many people just don't know when to quit after avoiding death once.
https://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2022-02.html


One of my favorite quotes is from British climber Don Whillans, who survived many cutting edge climbs to die of a heart attack (albeit at 52): "I'll fight my way out of trouble, but I sure as Hell won't fight my way in."

[buckworks]

This reminds me of something the instructor said when I took scuba lessons.

He was giving advice about equipment, and he said to ABSOLUTELY NOT buy an expensive titanium diving knife no matter how much you liked it. Get an ugly, cheap one instead. The reason? If you drop the expensive one, you'd be tempted to to after it and that could get you into big trouble. An ugly cheap diving knife is safer because it's easier to just let it go.

Related: when we had extra insulation blown into our attic, the fellow who'd be doing the work made a ceremony of removing his watch and emptying his pockets. Because if he ever dropped something into the fibreglass fluff, he might never find it again. My dad did the same thing when he went out in his Lazy E sailboat ... removed his watch, emptied his pockets ... and took out his false teeth!

[rcjordan]

UK: Social media and map apps lead to most mountain rescues ever

https://boingboing.net/2025/04/17/social-media-and-map-apps-lead-to-most-mountain-rescues-ever-in-uk-says-official.html