Stranded, NOT Abandoned

If one only reads the headlines, it must have been awful for the hikers “Abandoned on the Tram,” a headline that leads readers to think that the hikers were dangling from a Tram car on its way down the mountain, suspended over the gorge thousands of feet below, while the winds whipped the car to and fro. Actually, however, the hikers were stranded on the mountain, safe and sound, waiting out the sudden storm that shut down the Tram when it was no longer safe to operate.

The opening ‘graph (and accompanying photo) portrays 17 people left out in the fierce winds and winter weather that forced the Tram to suspend operations at 2pm. Alas, these poor abandoned hikers, appropriately dressed for a winter hike and carrying food, were left to fend for themselves at the top of the mountain, taking shelter in an old, drafty mule shed and making it through the worst night of their lives (www.mydesert.com).

A picture, however, is worth a thousand words, and one of the (other) published pictures shows that the hikers were in a metal mule shed that they fortified with plywood flooring and a “sliding door” they constructed as protection from the winter weather.

(www.mydesert.com) The spacious metal building the hikers occupied is not the height of luxury by any means, but it kept the hikers safe for the night and protected them from the worst of the winter weather. The tram car arrived at 8am to take them down to the parking lot. They were tired, cold and hungry, but safe, a fact that seems not worth mentioning by the reporter whose focus for the ending of the story is on a back window of one hiker's car smashed out by debris from the ferocious storm that came through the Valley while the hikers were stranded on the mountain.

The reader has to get well into the long article to learn that a ranger stayed at the top of the mountain to wait for the hikers to return to the ranger station, and provided the hikers with adequate shelter, as well as blankets and sleeping bags. Sure, he did not have the key to the Tram station, nor did he feel that he could accommodate that many strangers in the ranger station, but he did do what he could to help with this emergency. Things could have been a whole lot worse for the hikers, but not to worry: the ranger's name is on the list of people who ought to be fired for what they did to these poor abandoned hikers -- who obviously were NOT abandoned at all!

Lots of corny platitudes come to mind, such as "be prepared," “think before you act,” and “plan for the worst, then expect the best,” especially when weather reports called for winter weather conditions and unusually high winds, 90 mph winds that forced the emergency shut-down and evacuation of the gala Humana Golf Challenge the same day and also over-qualified for emergency shut down of the tram! Trees were uprooted, power poles felled, businesses and homes damaged, and a carport collapsed onto residents' cars at an apartment building. Lots of citizens were without power during the horrendous storm, but the sole focus of today's news is the hikers, dressed for a winter hike, "Abandoned (Stranded overnight) on the Tram (mountain)."

Imagine how upset the hikers' families would have been had the hikers been crowded into a tram car, started down the mountain in obviously unsafe conditions, and ended their trip with a free-fall thousands of feet below onto the rocks! Now that would be something about which to complain, but an uncomfortable overnight emergency shelter at the top of the mountain is simply a great story to tell the grandkids!