Editor: I am writing to disagree with your recent editorial regarding the deaths last week. Many people were affected by these events.
Sensationalizing and demanding blind reform is asinine and insensitive.
Many of your readers work in the backcountry industry. Most of your readers recreate and love the mountains.
In this large but tight community, many have felt the loss and struggle with the pain of losing friends and loved ones to accidents in the mountains.
Articles written about these topics without proper research and understanding of the issue are below the RMO.
Comparing a high-level alpinist accident and ski touring accident is like comparing a train derailment, motorcycle racing crash and traffic fatality, and then saying we should re-evaluate using vehicles to travel.
All accidents were unique, had very different causes and devastated loved ones.
They were respected members of the community and judgments about these terrible accidents should not be tolerated.
Please remember in the future that it is easy to judge incidents when you have the benefits of hindsight and are unaware of the human and environmental factors that led up to an accident.
Report facts and leave the accident analysis to professionals. Please keep it respectful.
Brad Roach,
Golden B.C.
