6 ms·

'I found your dad': The mystery of a missing climber

147 points by gmays 2y ago

sherdil2022 2y ago
This was a very poignant read. Thank you for posting it.
aburan28 2y ago
This mountain was also the site of the most deadly avalanche/landslide in recorded history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Huascar%C3%A1n_debris_avalanche https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Huascar%C3%A1n_debris_ava...
- Rendello 2y ago
  That reminds me of another crazy weather event that you rarely hear about, the 1972 Iran Blizzard: > Southern Iran received as much as 7.9 metres (26 ft) of snow, burying at least 4,000 individuals. According to contemporary reports by the newspaper Ettela'at, the city of Ardakan and outlying villages were hardest hit, with no survivors in Kakkan or Kumar. In the northwest, near the border with Turkey, the village of Shaklabad and its 100 inhabitants were buried. According to some experts, about 200 villages were buried under the snow and completely erased from the map. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Iran_blizzard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Iran_blizzard
shermantanktop 2y ago
[flagged]
- voidfunc 2y ago
  Some folks are adrenaline junkies. Doing this stuff when you have kids though is negligence and even worse doing it when the kid already lost one parent to the activity. Fuck those parents and anyone here that's like them.
  - jwagenet 2y ago
    Most mountaineering is not an adrenaline fueled pursuit and many adrenaline junkies would find it’s often non-technical tactics boring. Is it an egotistical pursuit? Sure. Objectively hazardous? Yes. But distance cyclists and runners have more in common with mountaineers than base jumpers.
    - ip26 2y ago
      There’s class 4 mountaineers, and WI6 mountaineers. It’s often hard to tell where any one person falls on that continuum.
      - wetmore 2y ago
        The latter are generally called alpinists.
  - paulcole 2y ago
    > Doing this stuff when you have kids though is negligence Obviously there’s a middle ground but nobody says that giving up the thing that you love because you have kids is negligence.
    - OrsonSmelles 2y ago
      I think having a commitment that strong to a dangerous activity should factor into whether you have kids in the first place. Maybe it doesn't make the answer an automatic "no", but I think one has to really think through one's decision to create a person who will have a disproportionate risk of major trauma in their early life and should have an extremely clear contingency plan for the child's care by someone who is genuinely psychologically and materially prepared for that eventuality. I think that to do less than that would be negligence—it might be a common type of negligence, easily obscured by romanticism about bold endeavors, but it is certainly not taking care.
      - paulcole 2y ago
- blackguardx 2y ago
  Driving to the mountains is often more dangerous than climbing a mountain. Things change at the elite levels, but that is true for any sport.
  - neckardt 2y ago
    The problem with mountains is twofold: Many mountains can be climbed without being elite while exposing yourself to major risk, and for some mountains there is objective hazard that can’t be mitigated. One example of an “easy” but high risk climb is Mt. Rainier in Washington. All you need to go up is a set of crampons and a backpack, no technical mountaineering needed. However the mountain is full of glaciers that can collapse from under you, which has killed many people. Additionally, many have slipped and then slid to their death. In my case, when I attempted Rainier I took a wrong turn at one point and almost walked off a cliff. Second: Objective Hazard. Objective hazard is risks that cannot be reasonably mitigated. Things like rockfall where a rock breaks off and falls on your head at random, or unpredictable avalanches. Mt Rainier as well has an area called the bowling alley known for its rockfall. The humans are the pins. Rainier also has an area called the icebox where cornices break off and fall into the climbing route. In 1981 the icebox killed 11 people in one day. Those climbers did everything right, but were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mountaineering is not the same as other sports. It is sometimes deceptively easy, yet there are risks that simply cannot be mitigated. Any experienced mountaineer can give you a long list of friends they know that have died. That’s the case in few other sports.
    - billy99k 2y ago
      It's the same with base jumping. I remember watching a documentary on it one time and almost all of the people being interviewed knew multiple people that died during a jump.
      - amiga386 2y ago
        They are not the same. In mountaineering, if something goes wrong, you could die. In base jumping, if you don't do everything correctly, you will die. A bit like the difference of a car engine failing (it will roll to a stop) vs an airplane engine failing (you will come down hard on the ground)
- bratwurst3000 2y ago
  honestly your comment and others are condescending as hell. For sure there are risks that the best planing cant safe one from but this is live. Many sports and adventures are dangerous. Doing a shitload of cocaine or alcohol is way more dangerous and shitty towards society then mountaineering. I am mountaineering and i come from a family of mountaineers. I asure you usually those people are very aware of what they are doing and the risk and they do every possible to minimize risk to the least possible. Dying is if you are professional and self conscious very very rare. It still happens but this is live and sitting there behind you screen and judging people while , I am certain, not beeing conscious enough to grasp what you do that could kill you everyday. Are you driving a car? how do you prepare to net get killed in a road accident? you know it could still happen. problem that death numbers are so high is because of social media idiots doing it for the fame and not beeing prepared while beeing 100% douches. And mountaineering. Its amazing. Why people do it? I do it because i feel so little there and the world so big. In the mountains your mind gets activated because you are not anymore the king of the city but a little animal in big nature. beeing on a summit is something that the human mind cant grasp. its feeling endless beauty. Your friends are so close to you and you did something amazing together and your body and minds knows it. its like fucking. there is a nature to its greatness. Also all the technical stuff and planning is awesome and i love every moment of it. So i hope you understand there is something about it.
  - shermantanktop 2y ago
    No condescension intended. I think I understand the appeal, in the same way I understand Jack London stories, Joseph Conrad novels, Survivor, Fight Club, and that bear movie guy. We’re too civilized, we’re hothouse flowers, and a little danger makes you feel alive. Especially if you are raised with traditional masculine values. If you could have the same solitude, sweeping views, natural beauty, cameraderie, etc., but without real danger, would it have the same appeal?
    - ted_dunning 2y ago
      It would have many of the same appeals. But it really isn't possible to replicate without being in the high peaks. Car camping and backpacking have some of the appeal, but not nearly as intensely.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  [flagged]
snowwrestler 2y ago
If you liked this story, you might like the documentary “Torn,” which was made by children of Alex Lowe, a top mountaineer who disappeared in an avalanche and then his body was found years later.
- SpicyUme 2y ago
  Another is Eiger Obsession Facing the Mountain that Killed My Father By John Harlin III. His father died attempting a route on the Eiger when he was a kid. Later in life he climbed it while his own kids were around the same age. I thought he wrote pretty well about his father's drive and how it impacted his family and his life.
philxor 2y ago
Read this a couple weeks ago when it came out. Great story, but yeah when having kids and a family takes another sort of person to still want to pursue those adventures. But some cannot just sit still and feel the need to push their endeavors to the highest limit.
- dan-robertson 2y ago
  It’s maybe a bit different when the kids are adults, as I think was the case here.
j7ake 2y ago
Great article. I am surprised at how close cooper became with the stampf family. There were others that found Bills body but only cooper stayed close.

147 points by gmays 2y ago

sherdil2022 2y ago

This was a very poignant read. Thank you for posting it.

This mountain was also the site of the most deadly avalanche/landslide in recorded history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Huascar%C3%A1n_debris_avalanche https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Huascar%C3%A1n_debris_ava...

Rendello 2y ago
That reminds me of another crazy weather event that you rarely hear about, the 1972 Iran Blizzard: > Southern Iran received as much as 7.9 metres (26 ft) of snow, burying at least 4,000 individuals. According to contemporary reports by the newspaper Ettela'at, the city of Ardakan and outlying villages were hardest hit, with no survivors in Kakkan or Kumar. In the northwest, near the border with Turkey, the village of Shaklabad and its 100 inhabitants were buried. According to some experts, about 200 villages were buried under the snow and completely erased from the map. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Iran_blizzard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Iran_blizzard

shermantanktop 2y ago

[flagged]

voidfunc 2y ago
Some folks are adrenaline junkies. Doing this stuff when you have kids though is negligence and even worse doing it when the kid already lost one parent to the activity. Fuck those parents and anyone here that's like them.
- jwagenet 2y ago
  Most mountaineering is not an adrenaline fueled pursuit and many adrenaline junkies would find it’s often non-technical tactics boring. Is it an egotistical pursuit? Sure. Objectively hazardous? Yes. But distance cyclists and runners have more in common with mountaineers than base jumpers.
  - ip26 2y ago
    There’s class 4 mountaineers, and WI6 mountaineers. It’s often hard to tell where any one person falls on that continuum.
    - wetmore 2y ago
      The latter are generally called alpinists.
- paulcole 2y ago
  > Doing this stuff when you have kids though is negligence Obviously there’s a middle ground but nobody says that giving up the thing that you love because you have kids is negligence.
  - OrsonSmelles 2y ago
    I think having a commitment that strong to a dangerous activity should factor into whether you have kids in the first place. Maybe it doesn't make the answer an automatic "no", but I think one has to really think through one's decision to create a person who will have a disproportionate risk of major trauma in their early life and should have an extremely clear contingency plan for the child's care by someone who is genuinely psychologically and materially prepared for that eventuality. I think that to do less than that would be negligence—it might be a common type of negligence, easily obscured by romanticism about bold endeavors, but it is certainly not taking care.
    - paulcole 2y ago
blackguardx 2y ago
Driving to the mountains is often more dangerous than climbing a mountain. Things change at the elite levels, but that is true for any sport.
- neckardt 2y ago
  The problem with mountains is twofold: Many mountains can be climbed without being elite while exposing yourself to major risk, and for some mountains there is objective hazard that can’t be mitigated. One example of an “easy” but high risk climb is Mt. Rainier in Washington. All you need to go up is a set of crampons and a backpack, no technical mountaineering needed. However the mountain is full of glaciers that can collapse from under you, which has killed many people. Additionally, many have slipped and then slid to their death. In my case, when I attempted Rainier I took a wrong turn at one point and almost walked off a cliff. Second: Objective Hazard. Objective hazard is risks that cannot be reasonably mitigated. Things like rockfall where a rock breaks off and falls on your head at random, or unpredictable avalanches. Mt Rainier as well has an area called the bowling alley known for its rockfall. The humans are the pins. Rainier also has an area called the icebox where cornices break off and fall into the climbing route. In 1981 the icebox killed 11 people in one day. Those climbers did everything right, but were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mountaineering is not the same as other sports. It is sometimes deceptively easy, yet there are risks that simply cannot be mitigated. Any experienced mountaineer can give you a long list of friends they know that have died. That’s the case in few other sports.
  - billy99k 2y ago
    It's the same with base jumping. I remember watching a documentary on it one time and almost all of the people being interviewed knew multiple people that died during a jump.
    - amiga386 2y ago
      They are not the same. In mountaineering, if something goes wrong, you could die. In base jumping, if you don't do everything correctly, you will die. A bit like the difference of a car engine failing (it will roll to a stop) vs an airplane engine failing (you will come down hard on the ground)
bratwurst3000 2y ago
honestly your comment and others are condescending as hell. For sure there are risks that the best planing cant safe one from but this is live. Many sports and adventures are dangerous. Doing a shitload of cocaine or alcohol is way more dangerous and shitty towards society then mountaineering. I am mountaineering and i come from a family of mountaineers. I asure you usually those people are very aware of what they are doing and the risk and they do every possible to minimize risk to the least possible. Dying is if you are professional and self conscious very very rare. It still happens but this is live and sitting there behind you screen and judging people while , I am certain, not beeing conscious enough to grasp what you do that could kill you everyday. Are you driving a car? how do you prepare to net get killed in a road accident? you know it could still happen. problem that death numbers are so high is because of social media idiots doing it for the fame and not beeing prepared while beeing 100% douches. And mountaineering. Its amazing. Why people do it? I do it because i feel so little there and the world so big. In the mountains your mind gets activated because you are not anymore the king of the city but a little animal in big nature. beeing on a summit is something that the human mind cant grasp. its feeling endless beauty. Your friends are so close to you and you did something amazing together and your body and minds knows it. its like fucking. there is a nature to its greatness. Also all the technical stuff and planning is awesome and i love every moment of it. So i hope you understand there is something about it.
- shermantanktop 2y ago
  No condescension intended. I think I understand the appeal, in the same way I understand Jack London stories, Joseph Conrad novels, Survivor, Fight Club, and that bear movie guy. We’re too civilized, we’re hothouse flowers, and a little danger makes you feel alive. Especially if you are raised with traditional masculine values. If you could have the same solitude, sweeping views, natural beauty, cameraderie, etc., but without real danger, would it have the same appeal?
  - ted_dunning 2y ago
    It would have many of the same appeals. But it really isn't possible to replicate without being in the high peaks. Car camping and backpacking have some of the appeal, but not nearly as intensely.
prmoustache 2y ago
[flagged]

snowwrestler 2y ago

If you liked this story, you might like the documentary “Torn,” which was made by children of Alex Lowe, a top mountaineer who disappeared in an avalanche and then his body was found years later.

SpicyUme 2y ago
Another is Eiger Obsession Facing the Mountain that Killed My Father By John Harlin III. His father died attempting a route on the Eiger when he was a kid. Later in life he climbed it while his own kids were around the same age. I thought he wrote pretty well about his father's drive and how it impacted his family and his life.

philxor 2y ago

Read this a couple weeks ago when it came out. Great story, but yeah when having kids and a family takes another sort of person to still want to pursue those adventures. But some cannot just sit still and feel the need to push their endeavors to the highest limit.

dan-robertson 2y ago
It’s maybe a bit different when the kids are adults, as I think was the case here.

j7ake 2y ago

Great article. I am surprised at how close cooper became with the stampf family. There were others that found Bills body but only cooper stayed close.