The following safety article was submitted to Editor Katie Ives for publication and she told me Letters was full. She never mentioned my submission again.
I would like to quote from Alpinist 62:
"The duty to stay safe for the sake of others and the right to take our own risks with our own lives."
"Other people have written better..., about the joy and the risk and the ethics of pushing limits. I've pondered the moral dilemmas of climbing."
"We should still play in the mountains. We should still risk our lives in them, if we decide it's worth it under careful consideration."
All these quotes assume climbing is dangerous and you can loose your life.
We need to stop thinking like this which results in climbing being dangerous.
We need to climb as if climbing is a safe pursuit and you don't need to ever be involved in an accident or loose your life.
With the ever increasing frequency of climbing deaths and accidents we need to start thinking that climbing can be a safe pursuit.
Is this really possible?
Fred Becky showed it was.
One of my best friends climbed with Becky for over twenty years and went on to put in new routes as hard or harder than Becky with never an accident.
My other friend who put in new routes with Becky never had an accident.
My friends are in their seventies now and still climbing safely.
I've also climbed my entire life without an accident and my Father climbed till he was ninety three years old, a few months before he died, without an accident.
How do you do this?
Follow the Mountaineers Code and Jim Whitakers advice:
"I have told many people, including my sons, 'If you want to climb mountains, read Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills. Then read it again so you know, how to get down.'"
The following two quotes are from Freedom Chapter 22 titled SAFETY: HOW TO STAY SAFE:
As an Alpinist who carries a long list of dead friends and partners, I approach the mountains differently than most. I go to them intending to survive, which I define as a success. A new route or the summit is a bonus.
Mark Twight Extreme Alpinist
Reaching the summit is optional. Getting down is mandatory.
Ed Viesturs , No Shortcuts to the Top:
Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks
I am requesting everyone at Alpinist read this post and consider it a resubmission and be professional and reply.
Captain Bill Schweizer U.S.M.M., missionary, mountaineer, founder, and Wolfy
Mountaintop Sea Ministries International 501(c)(3)
With out menses-malice.
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