Ialways knew this post was inevitable, and more a question of “when” and not “if” I was going to write it.
The “when” has happened. I’ve written about safety and situational awareness, and this falls under both, along with stupidity. The autopsy report was completed in early January 2019 on married couple Menaskhi Moorthy and Vishnu Viswanath who fell to their deaths in Yosemite National Park in October 2018. They fell while attempting to pose for a selfie. The autopsy report stated they were, “intoxicated with ethyl alcohol prior to death,” according to the San Jose Mercury News.
The couple seemed to chase likes on social media by taking selfies of themselves in sometimes dangerous locations. Not a problem with that – nature is a dangerous playground, and we take that risk to some degree or another whenever we trek out into it. But what happened to these two may have been preventable.
Several years ago I was in Yosemite hiking, and the person I was with wanted to hike on up to Vernal Falls while intoxicated. I’m not one to say no to a good drink, but as fun as it sounded, I put the skids down on that idea real quick. A slip could have resulted in serious injury or death. This couple was found about 800 feet below Taft Point in Yosemite, and the cause of death for both were internal and head injuries. But the alcohol in their systems may have played a role.
I will never cease to be amazed by the things people do out in the wild that defy common sense. That being said, I’ll probably meet my end out there as well doing something that makes people shake their heads in wonder…