Re: 50-50 allocation: safety and environment

Alfred E. Holland, Jr. (aholland@unm.edu)
Mon, 20 Oct 1997 13:01:34 -0700


Judy Zachariasen and Earl Perry have opened a question about the
saftey/danger tensions of the river trip that intrigues me. I've been
diverted by more immediate responsibilities the last few weeks, and so
apologize for my tardy reply. If topic strays from list-favored subjects
but intrigues others, let me hear from you privately.

Seems to me that all trips liberally trade on the danger dimension as
a key component of their appeal to participants. Hearts pound for more
reasons than mere exertion as a boat threads the slot. The erection and
maintenance of excitement is as elaborately scripted as a boater's run but
sometimes not nearly so disciplined. None of the manipulation could succeed
without apparent danger lurking just at the margin of experience. Nor could
it succeed without colaboration between the more and less expert.

Some of us do it to ourselves.
I work myself into a sweat easing through the dark gorge above Horn.
Those polished walls wind me up like errie music in a monster flic. They
did it to the Major too.

Some of us do it to others.
Boulders on the left and big hole on the right, but most boats get
through every time. Several wags, chatting up the looming run through Lava,
have phantasized its drop to 35 feet from its 11. After all that fanfare,
many motor trips now fly their guests out as soon as practical below Lava
because there's "nothing else to look forward to" once it's been run.

Risk is real.
I've lost two friends and a third cut it too close for comfort last
summer. Shorty and Les, rest in peace.

Reciprocity across the spectrum of experience.
Hands long on experience contribute valuable knowledge to the
collective enterprise--the trip. But they charge for it. Part of the
compensation comes in adoration, admiration, and acknowledgement tendered
by that expertise's beneficiaries. Those who adore make heroes. Those who
admire make mentors. Those who acknowledge make pards. The teaching that
transpires at all three levels validates the accumulation of arcane
expertise.

Several of us heroic, mentoring pards are frustrated by having to wait
our turn to run the Grand, thinking [knowing] that because of our
accumulated arcane knowledge we should enjoy priority over the novice
dilletantes. See what happens when you let yourself be made a hero?
Arrogance infects. I've been quite impressed by several of the intricate
endruns constructed by experts chafing at the 6,000 name-long waiting list.
Keep up the good work. Maybe I'll get ahead that way too.

See you on the water,
Al

Alfred E Holland, Jr., 7321 Santa Juanita Avenue, Orangevale, CA 95662
(916)988-1300 aholland@unm.edu
The River flows downstream.
The Wind blows upstream till suppertime.
The River always wins.

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