Warning: Alaska may be hazardous to your health

There is an article in this morning's paper about the brother of a Minnesota doctor who fell on Mount Marathon and died this summer. The brother thinks there should have been a warning sign showing the safe way to go down. There are 33 comments on the story and while several writers expressed sympathies for the brother and family, not one agreed with the idea of a warning sign. A little history: this mountain which is in Seward is the site of a race every July 4 in which hundreds of people run up and down that mountain without a death in all the years it has been run (OK, so, one other person in the last 25 years).

So, my first impression was, right, put a sign everywhere there is significant danger in Alaska. There isn't enough stimulus money in the whole country to accomplish that, let alone thinking what the countryside would look like. The commenters on the story had some good suggestions: Put signs up but only in the Seattle, Anchorage and Fairbanks airports reading something like: "Warning! Alaska can be dangerous. Proceed at your own risk" Many warned that when you head out into the woods here, there are dangers and the person should know what they are and how to deal with them. One guy suggested a sign that read something like the safest way down is follow your tracks from the way up, duh.

 All of it reminded me of the time the homeowners association that kind of handles the area around the East Pole (yes officially it is a subdivision) had a meeting and one woman wanted telephones put on trees at intervals along the trail so someone in trouble could call for help. Unfortunately some of the people even took her seriously. Fortunately there are no phones on trees along the trail. However we got cell phone coverage since then so now everyone can call for help when their fourwheelers get flat tires. Hey, lady, the whole idea is to be as self-sufficient as possible. Take care of yourself. And that is the way Outsiders and insiders for that matter need to be. You go into Alaska at your own risk. You are expected to be prepared and savvy enough (we call it skookum) to know the dangers and do all you can to minimize them. And then you have to be prepared to handle what comes. And no more families whining about warnings. We have very little sympathy for that.

Addendum: I had a grand idea. Why not bundle all the doo dahs up in bubble wrap as soon as they enter Alaska. I bet they would even float, not to mention bounce off anything they happened to fall onto. With all that bad-tasting plastic a bear might even spit them out.

Warning signs