that some might remember. A young climber made a poor assesment of weather on Mt. Washington in NH, he eventually lost both legs below the knee to frostbite, but more tragically one of the rescuers lost his life in an avalanche. The rescued climber went on to some noteriety in the climbing world by pushing limits with prothestic feet. There were some in the local climbing community that resented this young man in a big way at the time.....30 years has taken some of the sting away but the pain still lingers.

Before any of us make too many proclamations I refer to this statement from Captain Smith of the Titanic...

"When anyone asks how I can best describe my experience in nearly 40 years at sea, I merely say, uneventful. Of course there have been winter gales, and storms and fog the like, but in all my experience, I have never been in any accident of any sort worth speaking about. ...... I never saw a wreck and never have been wrecked, nor was I ever in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort. You see, I am not very good material for a story"

Every winter season there are cell phone calls from above tree line from people that are "lost" others put their lives at risk to rescue these people, I am reminded though that the resucers also choose to do the rescuing.