Risks, rewarding and unrewarding, considered.

David Ryan

David Ryan is a boat builder and USCG licensed master captain. He is the owner of Sailing Montauk and skipper of Montauk''s charter sailing catamaran MON TIKI You can follow him on Twitter @CaptDavidRyan

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3 Responses

  1. Damon says:

    Good points David.

    Reminds me of the time the wife and I were hiking in Zion and it began to rain. We had come unprepared since it was only a day hike even though we knew it had rained over the last few days each afternoon. We figured we’d be up and back before the rain. Wrong. Got stuck above a flooded slot canyon with about 20 others. One couple was prepared and forded the slot canyon to see how deep it was, and helped the rest of us. They gave the wife a poncho as she was hypothermic. On the way down we chatted about all the hiking we’d done in the area-and they gave us crap for “having the right gear the last time but not this time” Criticism well heeded I can tell you I was a dumbass and it nearly got us stuck overnight. Lesson learned. Nature’s a bitch.Report

    • Damon in reply to Damon says:

      Of course. That’s actually why we didn’t hike the Narrows. We took Observation Trail. It was only after it poured cats and dogs, with 6 inches of water on the trail, that my wife started shivering, and only then after we had waited, wet, under an overhang above the slot canyon to see if the water would drain out after it had stopped raining….

      Stupid of us..but the same goes for 16 of the idots all under that overhang as well. 🙂Report

    • J@m3z Aitch in reply to Damon says:

      If your wife was moderately (or severely) hypothermic, she had no business hiking.

      That’s ridiculous (and that’s the nice phrasing). His wife obviously didn’t start the hike hypothermic, and you don’t just stop and sit a hypothermic person, especially in an emergency situation. You want to get the person warm, which means dry clothes or a heat-retaining layer on top of their wet clothes, food and water, and if they’re still functional, exercise–i.e., hike.Report