Got a friend. Used to code. Lost all his money in '99 when the dotcom bubble popped. Went to Kauai. Learned to fly helicopters. Flew tours up and down the Na Pali coast. Got downsized in the recession. Flies rescue helicopters in Nepal now. It's interesting to me how when you see "risky job" you see "all the risk he can handle" as opposed to "maybe we shouldn't assume he wants to risk his life all the time." Gary Powers was a hell of a pilot. Did truly dangerous shit - like flying spy missions over the Soviet Union. Got shot down, in fact. Got out, lived his life, settled down to a nice boring job flying news choppers for KNBC.
I imagine this job wouldn’t be very in demand if nobody was climbing the mountains so if there wasn’t an opening what job would he get ? I don’t think he would be out of a job, I doubt there isn’t a single other job he could find. Does it suck not being able to do something that resembles the job you want ? Sure, but in that scenario the reason he can’t do that job is because of recession, not because of the climbers.
I think there’s a difference between calculated risk and being stupidly risky. I’m going to the hill tomorrow, I’m not riding in the trees because I don’t have enough control to not completely wreck myself. My friends on the other hand will because they are good enough. There will be a lot of fluffy snow as well so I will feel more comfortable going faster because falling won’t hurt as much. I wear wrist guards because it’s the #1 season ruining injury and I don’t like to talk about how expensive a season pass is here. Also broken bones are lame. Somebody who doesn’t wear a helmet is saying they feel that the likelihood of them hitting their head is small enough that they don’t need to bother. Considering you only have to hit your head badly once to ruin your life it makes sense to just wear the damn helmet. First time I went ice climbing I was belaying a bit of an idiot. He wanted to go fast up a semi flat part so even though my forearms were burning from trying to keep up he had a ton of slack. That was his choice but it involved me and I was pissed. I accepted a certain amount of risk doing something like that but there’s an understanding between us that he won’t put himself in unnecessary danger while his well being is in somebody else’s hands. That’s the thing, going on a day hike unprepared is meh and you aren’t really putting anybody else in huge danger. Going on some insane hike is not meh but when you go prepared you enter into an agreement with the people saving you where they understand what you are doing and that you might need help. Going on that same hike unprepared because you’re a dumb ass little shit is not fair.