Julian Sands is Missing

[Paul Farquhar]

I think if you compare the number of drivers to the number of hikers (and hours spent), those statistics are rather misleading. And I think you will find that a lot of people killed by drivers were not actually engaged in the activity of driving. Unlike hikers, who kill very few people who are not hiking.

If you engage in an activity you know is hazardous, then it's on you. But it's important that people are educated about the hazards, and how to minimise them, so they can make an informed decision.

When I lived near Blackpool, every year we would get a couple of people (usually tourists) washed into the sea and drowned when they went down to see the sea crashing over the promenade, or jumping in after dogs (note: dogs are generally better at not-drowning than humans). Got to treat nature with the proper respect.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

He may also have fallen or had a heart attack or stroke, and the weather may have had nothing to do with his death.

And not hiking alone could have saved him in both cases.

It's very cinematic and you get to feel like Ralph Waldo Emmerson, but it's a bad idea. And the San Gabriel Mountains are full of loose rock, even on areas where people walk all the time.

 

[MGibster]

I think if you compare the number of drivers to the number of hikers (and hours spent), those statistics are rather misleading. And I think you will find that a lot of people killed by drivers were not actually engaged in the activity of driving. Unlike hikers, who kill very few people who are not hiking.

Yeah, I acknowledged that in my post and invited someone better at math to crunch the numbers and show me how much more dangerous hiking was.

And not hiking alone could have saved him in both cases.

It could have. I walk 3-5 miles through my neighborhood every single day, and I could have a heart attack, suffer a heat stroke, hurt myself in a fall, get hit by a car, and just today someone on my neighbhorhood app posted about an armed man walking around brandishing a firearm so there's that too. A few weeks ago I took a nasty spill because a piece of the sidewalk was sticking up and I couldn't see it in the dark. I don't know what conditions were like the say Sands went on his final hike, but I'm not inclined to think he did anything foolish just by going alone.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not inclined to think he did anything foolish just by going alone.

The serious injuries and deaths that take place in the Los Angeles-area mountains are highly correlated with people hiking alone or unprepared. While accidents can always happen to anyone, the data suggests that more preparedness reduces the chances they will be deadly.