The story about the hiker who fell on Sunday in the Sex Canyon (and was in critical condition yesterday) ran in the print edition of the Statesman this morning with the original lead sentence (italics ours),
A 22-year-old climber was in critical…
Rather than the post-Paul Brady call to the Statesman that seemed to yield the adjustment…
A 22-year-old man remains in critical condition…
Certainly the Statesman doesn’t have a means of comprehending how the words they choose might have consequences for the public. They aren’t word people or anything. Their industry is not based on any particular commitment to semantic precision or truthiness, and who reads that rag anyway?
Centex climbers’ mini-freak out after the news of the fall came out was motivated by, for one, the fact that the ‘effing Statesman told us about it! If a climber fell, even someone from like Dallas or Kileen that no one knows, the climbing world phone tree o’ gossip and lore would have been activated by the first person to get a cell signal in the parking lot, and everyone would know who and how and where and omg lets consider adding a bolt or something by nightfall. But more to the point, and this is like a total SendAustin thing, the non-climbing media’s misconceptions about climbing are not good for climbing.
Msm climbing news is about climbing walls on cruise ships, a fun way to lose weight, adventures in sport choss tr-ing by pasty reporters, and accidents. There is a kind of disconnect there, no? Climbing comes off as this super kid friendly, innocuous activity, but also a stage for harrowing rescues and terrible injuries or deaths.
As of this morning, Travis County has not said anything about further restricting climber access in lieu of Sunday’s accident. Maybe we’ll put some nicer signs up, but probably not, because what can they say that the gigantic REI sign doesn’t already?
Danger, you are outdoors now. There may not be a handrail at every descent.
The only thing that comes to mind in this instance that might be useful would be having hikers sign a waiver, like climbers do, acknowledging how burley the hiking is at R’s compared to, say, most of the TC Parks.
One other note, Paul B, who saw the hikers as he was leaving Reimers at dusk on Sunday, said that the folks he observed were scrambling in the canyon, and he was not surprised to hear that there was a bad fall.
