This is a review of the North Rim
trip on Sept. 1, 2011. Since REI refused to publish I decided to put it on-line
so the people can finally learn the TRUTH about the trip as although much have
been written there is lot of stuff left uncovered , well until now …
Dream like escape into
another world
Trip classification system
First of all due the unified
system REI is using to classify all trips we are in a a-a-a let’s call it interesting
situation where winter climb of Mt. Washington is classified as level 3 enterprise
in the search page (level 4 in its own page) and the Grand Canyon excursion is deemed level 5. Hmm does this make sense to you? Let’s look at
the facts. The typical REI Mt. Washington climb have 50% percent failure rate
(one in 2 does not make it to the top). Grand Canyon - perhaps even 20% would
be generous (although true in our particular case). So what is causing the dissonance
in the scales? I have no insider’s information but if I have to make a wild
guess REI likely factored that Mt Washington despite the difficulties is a one
day effort while in the case of the Grand Canyon you have to lug your backpack
for days (4 to be precise). So although
you do not have to deal with 70+ miles wind you still have to face minor hurdles,
i.e. being deprived by Internet, braking your beloved Kindle and similar injustice
that easily puts the modern human down to his or her knees :)
