Yup. I'm horribly demanding.
If there was anything I learned from my friend's fall last year on the MR, it was to really take a look at with whom you are going out to play. You may be "just" walking a trail, but would you trust that person with your life?
5P's and all that.
This is slightly off topic...so bear with me.
Over the next few months people will start figuring out they need to couple up to get into shape to walk the MMWT in under 18 hours. Many will flock to various and sundry meetup.com groups.
I take people via the meetup process and tell the noobs is you have to research the organizer to make sure that person's style meets yours. If you are new to the wilderness you do not need to be going out with 15 individuals masquerading as a group, if you are a total noob. You are out not only to get into shape but to learn.
There are plenty of organizers in the meetup universe I would not go the wine and cheese outing, let alone winter trip with 30 of his nearest and dearest many of whom can't self arrest friends up Baldy Bowl in the middle of winter or close to 40 up the Vivian Creek Trail to Mt. San Gorgonio during the three season. There is a term we use for the aforementioned, meetupf.....s.
I, too, have witnessed a climbing accident first hand and it has affected who I choose as partners, the size of groups I go out with and where I go on my own.
