Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Questions concerning climbing Mount Rainier

I stumbled across that show on NatGeo a year or two ago. These shows often have a high ratio of fertilizer to fact, but here is my take on it:

The clients were short on fitness, skills, and high altitude experience. The groom got very weak and slow as they got higher. The bride fell first, the totally spent groom fell too, and they all ended up injured in the crevasse. Kurt was the hero for getting out first and orchestrating the rescue.

NatGeo never even hinted at this, but I thought those clients didn't really belong there, even with a guide. I also thought Kurt should have turned them around long before the fall. When one member of the team can't cut it at ~11,700, it's time to admit that you probably aren't going to make it to 14,411 and back safely. Kurt is great guy, and I don't mean to slam him. I would love to hear his account of the story.

I agree, and as I started to watch the clip, I stopped it after a couple of minutes as the adrenaline ratio was off the charts, and there was at least 5 more minutes of it. The outcome was entirely predictable.

Too bad these adventure TV networks don't take a more thoughtful approach to the issue of roping up vs. not roping up, and could use incidents like this one to demonstrate what can happen even when there's an experienced guide in charge. But, that would be more instructional than entertainment, so I guess you can't sell ads for Jeeps doing extreme things unless the testosterone meter registers a certain level.

I think that was about 6 years ago. They were helicoptered off the mountain, all recovered. My recollection of my conversation with Kurt about the film was that he was unhappy about how they portrayed things, giving a misimpression of the setup. However, that was a few years ago, and my memory is vague.

I believe the couple got married on the flats.