{"id":276,"date":"2015-03-02T01:20:03","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T09:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/?p=276"},"modified":"2015-03-16T22:28:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T05:28:37","slug":"determination-can-be-deadly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/featured\/determination-can-be-deadly\/","title":{"rendered":"Determination Can be Deadly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mt<\/a><\/p>\n

There is no way I can know what was in Kate Matrosova’s mind as she set off to climb The Presidential Traverse that would take her to the peaks of Mounts Madison (5,367 feet), Adams (5,794 feet), Jefferson (5,716 feet) and\u00a0Washington (6,288 feet)\u00a0on the Sunday of President’s Day weekend. \u00a0The New Hampshire peaks\u00a0aren’t\u00a0huge by standards of the western U.S. \u00a0\u00a0People do it in the winter, but it takes determination. \u00a0 The plan was to leave at 5 am and meet her husband at the end of her trek at 6 pm. \u00a0Some people do it in one day, some take two\u00a0or three. The weather at the top of the mountain can be the worst in the world with winds once measured at 231 miles per hour. \u00a0Today? \u00a0Only 40 miles per hour and the temperature -6\u00b0F. \u00a0One can prepare for that.<\/p>\n

While I lack the youth, mountaineering experience and condition of Ms Matrosova, I\u00a0can imagine preparing and equipping myself for the journey and making plans to go on that specific weekend. \u00a0A solid goal, a solid plan and a vision of success, plus the determination to head up the trail to complete the journey and\u00a0achieve that success. \u00a0Determination – the will to press on to achieve the goal – pays dividends in much of life, but sometimes determination must surrender to pragmatism.<\/p>\n

She summited Mt. Madison, but by the time Matrosova reached the top of Mt. Adams her determination had succumbed and she started down the mountain the way she had come. \u00a0Still above tree line at 3:30 pm, winds buffeted her at 77 miles an hour and temperatures had dropped to -21\u00b0F. She could no longer continue. \u00a0Being prepared, she had an emergency locater beacon which she activated.<\/p>\n

Rescuers were immediately notified of her location and by 7 pm they\u00a0were on\u00a0the trail. \u00a0They arrived at the last known beacon coordinates after midnight, but Matrosova was not to be found. \u00a0By then the temperature was -35\u00b0F and the wind was howling, they had to return. \u00a0Subsequent transmissions bounced her position to various points around the peak. \u00a0As it turns out, under these conditions locator beacons are not too\u00a0precise.<\/p>\n

Another team set out Monday morning in 100 mile per hour winds. \u00a0The only place on the planet that was colder was at the South Pole. \u00a0They found Matrosova where the wind had blown her a few hundred feet off the trail and smashed her to the ground. \u00a0She died there and was found 22 hours after she first activated the beacon.<\/p>\n

There are many lessons to be learned – a lot of ifs, buts and maybes. \u00a0For me it\u00a0involves\u00a0the balance between determination and pragmatism. \u00a0Matrosova’s determination kept her on the climb a little too long and she lost her life. \u00a0When the reality doesn’t match the vision and before nature becomes overpowering, its time to abandon the vision even if it seems like you just might make it.<\/p>\n

What have you learned from her story?<\/p>\n

The photo (by\u00a0Paulbalegend from Wikimedia Commons) shows Mt. Adams as seen\u00a0from Mt. Madision and the ridge where\u00a0Kate Matrosova died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no way I can know what was in Kate Matrosova’s mind as she set off to climb The Presidential Traverse that would take her to the peaks of Mounts Madison (5,367 feet), Adams (5,794 feet), Jefferson (5,716 feet) and\u00a0Washington (6,288 feet)\u00a0on the Sunday of President’s Day weekend. \u00a0The New Hampshire peaks\u00a0aren’t\u00a0huge by standards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,20,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-situations","category-survival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}