Several people died in the Cascades last week. Six by my count. That's a lot for one weekend. There were three backcountry boarders, two backpackers and a single hiker. Two other groups needed SAR assistance. This is all within about an hour of Seattle. Most of the deaths came as a result of poor decision making in the face of dangerous weather conditions - heavy snow, followed by a warming trend, heavy rain and wind (avalanche danger) or insufficient equipment (no snowshoes).
I find reading the detailed reports of the accidents fascinating, not in a delighting-in-the-macabre manner, but to try and understand what went wrong, so I don’t ever make similar mistakes.
Here is a report on the backpackers…
http://www.avalanche.org/av-reports/...3?OID=19417059
This group of geniuses who met on a community 'meet up' site almost all died on their 'easy' camping trip…
http://backpackers.meetup.com/114/calendar/6803238/
http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7963667
On the boarders
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsourc...y=snowboarders