Digital Accidents in North American Mountaineering

On May 24th, 2012, Heather (20) was downloading a copy of the Supertopo Red Rocks Climbing Guide which she had purchased, when she spilled her coffee on the computer, which crashed. The fragmented file was retrieved from the hard drive by a Apple genius SAR team, but could not be revived. The computer suffered fatal damage and was recycled. It was two years old and out of warranty.

Heather's analysis: "I never should have set the coffee cup right on my laptop. I had to buy a new laptop, but I was able to download the Guide from Supertopo using the same access code."

Terrain: Office
Immediate Cause: Slip of coffee cup, failure to protect computer.
Contributory Causes: Exceeding downloading speed. Hurrying.

OW!!!!

Contributing Cause: Using an Apple

Inadequate protection, inexperience and failure to anticipate objective hazards.

She should have been wearing a helmet, too.