Into Thin Air

[O-ring]

I know most of the people on this board have probably already read it, but a climbing buddy of mine turned me on to the book and I finished it a few days ago. It really is an excellent book...

Anyway, as I was reading it I couldn't help but compare certain aspects of it to diving. It seems to me that if the diving industry were as screwy as the climbing industry we would have dead divers littering our coastlines. If you have the money, regardless of experience, fitness, ability, etc. you can climb Mt. Everest. If you are lucky, you will make it back...if not, well, you can join the collection of frozen corpses adorning the mountainside.

Some of the stuff in this book is beyond the pale. It is the equivalent of running Doria expeditions for people with minimal dive experience and leading them down and walking them through everything on the way up (performing their gas switches, working their BCs, adjusting their buoyancy, navigating for them, etc.). I hope diving never gets that bad...

 

[Spectre]

... of books to read. I've not gotten to it yet though. I think I'm going to have to bump up it's priority and try to get to it soon.

 

[Scuba Princess]

Bump it up! It is definitely worth a read and probably a re-read later down the road. I read it quite some time ago and it was one of those books that just sticks with you. Two thumbs up IMHO.

 

[ianr33]

I have been rockclimbing a lot longer than I have been diving and one of the things that I found kind of offputting about diving was the amount of rules/regulations involved. I think one of the reasons for that is that the nature of the dangers are different. If you fall off a 1000 foot cliff or get buried in an avalanche its pretty obvious to most people what the consequences will be,whereas diving to 300 feet on air is not an obviously dangerous thing to do unless you have learnt about Narcosis,O2 toxicity etc.

Having said that in my opinion guided trips to mountains such as Everest are ridiculous.20 years ago most people climbing that high had years of experience to draw on when things hit the fan.You and I could probably climb Everest next year after training hard,provided we got perfect weather,get hit by a big storm though and we would probably die.

 

[O-ring]

ianr33 once bubbled...
I have been rockclimbing a lot longer than I have been diving and one of the things that I found kind of offputting about diving was the amount of rules/regulations involved. I think one of the reasons for that is that the nature of the dangers are different. If you fall off a 1000 foot cliff or get buried in an avalanche its pretty obvious to most people what the consequences will be,whereas diving to 300 feet on air is not an obviously dangerous thing to do unless you have learnt about Narcosis,O2 toxicity etc.

Having said that in my opinion guided trips to mountains such as Everest are ridiculous.20 years ago most people climbing that high had years of experience to draw on when things hit the fan.You and I could probably climb Everest next year after training hard,provided we got perfect weather,get hit by a big storm though and we would probably die.

Guided trips like the '96 trip are totally ridiculous. Most of the people up there had no business being on that mountain..

 

[ianr33]

How much do you think an Intro to Scuba/Dive the Doria weekend would cost?? I'm sure you could find lots of people with more money than sense

 

[O-ring]

ianr33 once bubbled...
How much do you think an Intro to Scuba/Dive the Doria weekend would cost?? I'm sure you could find lots of people with more money than sense

I was thinking more like Andrea Doria Resort Course or possibly Andrea Doria Scuba Refresher Course. Maybe Brittanic AOW?

 

[ianr33]

O-ring once bubbled...

I was thinking more like Andrea Doria Resort Course or possibly Andrea Doria Scuba Refresher Course. Maybe Brittanic AOW?

And dont forget the speciality courses. Edmund Fitzgerald Lake Diver,Wakulla Scooter Diver.....................

 

[O-ring]

Marianas Trench Deep Diver and Bismarck Wreck Diver

 

[SPEEDSTER]

Funny, I just finished my DIRF yesterday, and we actually discussed how similar the 2 sports are. More along the lines of caving than ow. i.e. problems with being too goal oriented on a particular dive/climb, not planning for the return trip down/out, theres a lot more too.

M