How do we stop people from heading to the hills in "this" weather?
We don't. We educate, we warn, we enlist every tourism site and dropping off point and social media campaigns to understand the danger, but we don't stop anyone. We ensure, through signs and the press, that anyone who goes in knows rescue is coming if it's safe for the rescuer...ONLY.
Where do you draw the line? -100 is a no-go, but -99 is? -90? -50? 0? Raining vs. sprinkling vs. cloudy? Is it age-dependent? Experience-dependent? Season? 40 in the winter is t-shirt time...40 in the summer is bundle up time.
What one terms as dangerous is subjective and up to the individual. I don't go out in this weather any longer. Would I have ever? Likely not. I have been out where it was below -30, and I was damn cold. I've been out when it was -10, and I was fine but my partner was cold. Two people, both with decades of experience, with similar gear and sharing a tent, having two different experiences. And, it's been the opposite of us before. So much of how you feel depends on several factors outside just the mercury reading.
But with a still air temp of -28 F on Monday not much breeze was needed to make one feel cold.
