Bee, I think there is a difference between being warned at the last minute as they are preparing to step on the trail, and being informed via reading the information. (I believe you, too, were the recipient of well-meaning but a little overzealous warning last month when you picked up permits.)
I don't know how much more the point of the bad weather could have been driven home, seeing that the sky was falling in chunks as those guys were pushing forward. It seems to me that anyone who was going to choose to be
that stubborn, obstinate, willful about pushing toward the summit would not have been dissuaded by reading about *the chance* of bad weather in a theoretical, informative format.
My experience/warning? Yes, when I went to pick up my permit, a well-meaning individual behind the desk sternly warned me that my plans to sleep on the summit could get me killed. Exact words: "You can die up there!!" Although I was, indeed, irritated over the fact that I seemed to be singled out for this predicted death, the point was taken -- even though the sky was crystal clear and had been all the prior week(and all day up the summit). The morning after sleeping on the summit, we did wake up to a nearby cell, and let me tell you, while everyone else was looking at the cell, I was back at camp stuffing everything like mad into my pack, so that I could make a hasty exit should I need to (I was, afterall, singled out for imminent death)As it turned out, the cell went north, I missed most of the sunrise, and everything went perfectly.....but I was still ready to make a hasty departure.
Steve, I am not saying that the message boards do not have their place in the information sphere, rather, I am saying that with the unique personality profile that George speaks of, reference material, weather models, & anecdotes are probably going to be ineffective. Such single-minded zealots exist in all avenues of the population (some of them become so fixated on their endeavor that they are willing to undertake exploits that have a 100% mortality failure). Luckily, we are just talking about hiking in this case.
