The unaffordable cost of high adrenaline

On Tuesday, I was reading a strange first-page story in the Washington Post about what happened on March 21, 2023, to the Colorado-born Emily Franciose, a senior at a pricey Swiss boarding school, Ecole d'Humanité, that died trapped under the 2,000ft-wide avalanche on the Gstelliwang slope in the Bern canton of Switzerland.

The parent of this only child went along with her wish to spend her last year in High School in that perfect Ecole d'Humanité instead of staying in the uppity Vail environment at a cost of $60,000 per year in tuition and boarding alone. 

One would think that she would be safe there, but she wasn’t as the activity masters and guide took the teenager and her classmates in a place where avalanche danger had been forecast, was higher than usual, just to offer the students a unique experience. 

I bring up this sad accident to show that in these times, “unique experience” seem to be what’s most important regardless of the risk involved and it’s perhaps time to slow down a bit, think at what result when we chase the extreme and see the folly in going for adrenaline at all cost. 

This, whether it’s on snow or anywhere else for this matter, finding heroic, extreme and remarkable feats has become the name of the game in leading a life well lived. Yeah, let’s forget the mundane alternatives and push as far as humanely possible to the extreme and the ultra-thin margins of safety!