Although one of the news articles refers to the "summit" it is not clear to me these climbers proceeded to the actual summit, as opposed to the top of Huntington ravine, the high point for most ice climbers in the ravine. Their bivouac near Nelson Crag suggests they made slow progress on their climb of Damnation Gully and were hit by high winds at the top of the ravine, preventing their intended downclimb of the escape hatch.
It is easy to find fault with their actions, and certainly mistakes abound here. But if they did not push on to the summit, attributing their plight to mere stupidity obscures some concrete lessons here. First, the 11 a.m. start from the base of the route probably seemed reasonable if they only intended to climb to the top of the ravine. And it would have been if both climbers had been experienced. They apparently were not. Their painfully slow progress suggests Santala (who is reported to be inexperienced) had difficulty with the climbing. Instead of reversing course and heading down Damnation Gully when the hour got late (and leaving gear in the process), McDonald may have thought it safer to top out and reach the escape hatch. And it would have been had conditions allowed travel in that direction. But the wind was apparently in their faces and they couldn't make any progress. When you are below the lip, it's not always clear that you are about to get hit by a freight train. Another mistake appears to be not having a Plan B when strong winds prohibited travel in their intended direction. Instead of traversing in the teeth of the wind to the escape hatch, they might have walked around the north side and downclimbed to the east.
I made my share of stupid mistakes in the mountains in my first years of climbing. More often than not, it was one small mistake that got progressively worse because I stuck to a preordained plan, not realizing I had other options. If Santala was as inexperienced as reported, she shouldn't have been climbing in Huntington ravine. When that became obvious, they should have headed straight down. And they obviouly should have known the wind forecast for the upper mountain.
That said, I give them both credit for keeping it together and staying alive. Things can get out of control very quickly once panic sets in up there. And like everyone else, I think all credit goes to the SAR teams.
