Criminal idiot parboiled at YNP
News article This one fits well with that women who decided to dance on a cliff edge and of course fell off.
Forum Discussion
You are exactly right -- those folks (me and DW!) are pretty far from the geyser -- maybe a hundred feet. (Zoom lens!) Before sitting down, we felt the ground with our hands to see if it was wet. Or too hot. It was dry and warm.
But I freely admit that standing (let's say) a hundred yards away would be safer. We were well aware of the risks (minimal but not zero). We wanted to get as close to this back-country geyser as we could while still staying safe.
The same is true of surfing, which we do all the time. There is a risk of shark attack. There is a risk of getting hit by a surfboard. There is a substantial risk of getting stung by a sting ray (which has happened to me the last two times we went to the beach). Risk is part of adventure travel.
We hike across snowfields, knowing that there is a risk of avalanche. If the slope is too steep, we don't cross it.
We swim in creeks in the Sierra -- we test the current first. But if we are wrong, and the current is too strong, we get swept away and drown.
We climb fairly steep granite domes, like Lembert Dome in Yosemite. The traction is good, but there is always a chance that your foot will slip and you will get hurt.
Some risks are not capable of being managed. Do we know that the person in line next to us at the grocery store does not have Covid? There is no way to know, so we minimize our contacts with the outside world.
So the issue is not "do you take risks?" It is "how do you behave in order to minimize risk while still living your life?"
Stepping off a boardwalk at Yellowstone is stupid. It's forbidden, too. Taking a risk without being able to evaluate its magnitude is a recipe for death. That's the key -- the saying is "look before you leap," not "never ever leap anything."
But I freely admit that standing (let's say) a hundred yards away would be safer. We were well aware of the risks (minimal but not zero). We wanted to get as close to this back-country geyser as we could while still staying safe.
The same is true of surfing, which we do all the time. There is a risk of shark attack. There is a risk of getting hit by a surfboard. There is a substantial risk of getting stung by a sting ray (which has happened to me the last two times we went to the beach). Risk is part of adventure travel.
We hike across snowfields, knowing that there is a risk of avalanche. If the slope is too steep, we don't cross it.
We swim in creeks in the Sierra -- we test the current first. But if we are wrong, and the current is too strong, we get swept away and drown.
We climb fairly steep granite domes, like Lembert Dome in Yosemite. The traction is good, but there is always a chance that your foot will slip and you will get hurt.
Some risks are not capable of being managed. Do we know that the person in line next to us at the grocery store does not have Covid? There is no way to know, so we minimize our contacts with the outside world.
So the issue is not "do you take risks?" It is "how do you behave in order to minimize risk while still living your life?"
Stepping off a boardwalk at Yellowstone is stupid. It's forbidden, too. Taking a risk without being able to evaluate its magnitude is a recipe for death. That's the key -- the saying is "look before you leap," not "never ever leap anything."
