He consistently puts himself into dangerous situations…
I got the feeling throughout the book he was an accident waiting to happen. Indeed on one trip he led a couple of friends into a near death avalanche without taking time to analyse the risk. His friends never spoke to him again. I know someone in Bend who knew him before the accident. She said he was an egotistical liabilty.
It was ironic that the incident that caught him out was caused by the most benign of moves.
I recently read Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire which was based around the Arches National Park. The Utah canyonlands sound awesome on paper, I’ll check out the film and maybe try a make a trip out there sometime.