Good morning. It’s Saturday, Aug. 17. Right here’s what’s occurring in Opinion.
Final month, 20-year-old Grace Rohloff slipped and died descending from the summit of Half Dome in Yosemite Nationwide Park. This accident, although unquestionably tragic, was not distinctive: The ultimate 400-foot ascent up the steep granite batholith, recognized to supply unsteady footing even on dry days, turns into horrifically slippery when it rains. Hikers maintain onto a set of cables bolted into the granite for the ultimate ascent and preliminary hike down, however deaths attributable to falls occur. Each accountable adventurer who has educated and ready for the hike (and there are ample assets for this) is aware of this earlier than taking a single step on the 16-mile round-trip journey from Yosemite Valley to the 8,800-foot peak. When moist climate arrives, because it did when Rohloff fell — and because it typically does, unpredictably, within the mountains — the hazard turns into way more acute.
What’s totally different now’s that the sufferer’s father is asking for larger security measures on Half Dome — particularly, for extra wooden slats to be positioned beneath the cables so hikers can have higher footing. That will, undoubtedly, make the ultimate push up Half Dome much less perilous — however because the a number of readers who despatched us letters about Rohloff’s accident have stated, that doesn’t imply we should always pound extra wooden into the granite or do the rest to make the hike safer.
About 95% of Yosemite is designated wilderness land, and the aim of the Nationwide Park System is to each preserve entry for the general public and protect the pure beautify and wildlife that draw crowds within the first place. That doesn’t imply facilitating quick access to distant corners of the park — and regardless of its reputation, the summit of Half Dome is about as distant a location as you’ll be able to think about for a spot that attracts 4 million guests per 12 months.
After which there’s the cruel reality of adventuring outside: The danger of damage or loss of life looms, at all times. It doesn’t matter in the event you’re within the San Gabriel Mountains on L.A.’s doorstep (the place the Montrose Search and Rescue Workforce is among the many nation’s most energetic rescue models), in Massive Sur alongside the postcard-perfect California coast (the place a bicyclist fell down a rock slide and practically died final week, regardless of being warned that what he was about to do might kill him), or in Dying Valley (the place folks nonetheless go mountain climbing regardless of oven-like warmth, generally leading to arguably probably the most avoidable deaths in nature).
This proximity to wild, pure magnificence calls for our logic (and as fireplace season intensifies, logic would possibly inform you to keep out of the mountains). As reader Sean McGraw of Colorado, who recognized himself as an avid climber with ample expertise in Yosemite, wrote in a letter to the editor that got here in Thursday:
“We should always resist altering mountains to convey them right down to our ability stage. As an alternative we should always attempt to elevate our ability ranges to satisfy the problem of the mountain. If we bolted cables up the face of each mountain it might be an atrocity towards nature.”
Trump and different Republicans name Kamala Harris a failed “border czar.” Right here’s the reality. Wayne A. Cornelius factors out that the vice chairman was tasked not with border safety, however with addressing the foundation causes that flip so many individuals into migrants in search of entrance to the U.S. “Investments in addressing root causes aren’t a fast repair,” he writes, “however neglecting them solely or till the border is ‘safe’ — as Trump and different Republicans insist — solely delays sustainable administration of immigration.”
The complete reality of Sept. 11 continues to be rising — and no, that’s not a sop to 9/11 “truthers.” Columnist Jackie Calmes says the discharge of closely redacted authorities paperwork and former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s new ebook are filling out a troubling image of Saudi complicity within the terrorist assaults on New York and Washington virtually 23 years in the past.
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We’d like a path to safer chemotherapy. Oncologist David Kerr has been in most cancers drugs for many years and has seen the emergence of recent therapies that take much less of a toll on the physique than conventional chemotherapy. Nonetheless, chemotherapy is a mainstay of contemporary most cancers therapy, placing sufferers at severe danger of problems in a roundabout way associated to their illness. He says mandating a “easy genetic blood take a look at might assist most cancers sufferers get the care they want and higher shield them from medical tragedies introduced on by the therapy itself.”
What do you wish to see change in L.A. earlier than the 2028 Olympics? In Wednesday’s e-newsletter, my colleague Kerry Cavanaugh famous that “Paris leaders used the Olympics because the impetus to rework their city panorama,” and Los Angeles might bear comparable adjustments earlier than 2028, lest the world see the traffic-choked freeways and automotive dependence we reside with daily. She requested you to ship your concepts for sprucing up L.A. earlier than the world arrives in 4 years; you’ll be able to ship these concepts to letters@latimes.com.
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