People need to take a class in basic mountaineering with a good climbing school and then practice.
Bob, I know your heart is in the right place, but some windmills just need to be avoided being tilted at. Human nature dictates that beyond cursory information, skills/safety advocacy isn't going to be effective. Therefore, spending mental energy only makes you aggravated; no one else is effected.
Two examples of what happens when you attempt even the gentlest suggestions:
1. The two MR climbers who came up the final 400 and descended the 'walk-off' - thereby discovering the body - did so because they didn't bring ropes, harness, carabiners, etc to belay. How do I know? Because I spoke to them about the dangers of the walk-off in wet/icy/slippery conditions. (When I first heard the news days later, I thought it was one of them.) But they really didn't have any choice - they knew they couldn't risk descending the final 400 with the gear (ice axe, helment, boots & crampons) they brought.
When I repeated that the route they were taking was dangerous, and suggested the MMWT (they were day hikers) they replied that they saw boot tracks, so concluded that someone had made it and they could follow those. Of course, the tracks they saw (this was all within 10-15 minutes of the victim leaving and they arriving) were probably his. At that point, any further discussion was futile, because I would simply be viewed as a nag - perhaps I already was.
2. Practically every single person who reached the summit via the MWWT did so with their ice axes improperly stowed. (You didn't need an axe for the last 1/2 mile, so I assume everyone put them away.) Rather than pick side down on the outside of the pack (adze facing out/pick facing in), they all had them stored pick side up, with maybe half with axes on the side of the pack and picks directly facing their exposed necks.
One kid was actually attentive and excited to see his day pack actually had a axe loop AND a built in clip. Once he re-adjusted his axe, I mentioned he was now in charge of "being a dick". He took his new job under tow, and the first person he suggested changing immediately shut him down - stating he was fine. I had a laugh at my new acolyte with a "I told you so" smile. This is what he later wrote on FB, and some of my comments @ HST:
We met Lauren and Jordan on the summit and had some fun teaching them about how to carry their ice axes without getting hurt. Jordan posted on FB, " I’ll be sure to spread the ice axe knowledge far and wide!"---
It's great to pass the mantle of "I'm not being a dick" to Jordan. Once seen, it cannot be unseen. An ice pick pointed at C7 to execute some kind of Spock like death blow upon the slightest stumble condemns one to constant mothering.
Still, the goofball who insisted on having his axe hoisted in the carabiner loop for a "quick draw" will forever elicit derision whenever the story is told.
http://www.highsierratopix.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18106People who want to learn will do so; those who don't, won't.
