>RINJANI MOUNTAIN AREA, WEST NUSA TENGGARA, INDONESIA – JUNE, 2025 Hiking trip ended tragically for 26-year-old Brazilian tourist Juliana Marins. On June 21, she set out on the “Cemara Tunggal” trail with five other people. Likely due to fatigue and the slippery terrain, she lost her balance and fell approximately 500–650 feet (150–200 meters) down a steep, rocky slope. She survived the fall but landed in an area her companions couldn’t reach. They had to contact the national park authorities to launch a rescue operation.Rescue efforts began immediately after the alert, but the search was hampered by poor weather conditions, thick fog, and extremely rugged terrain. She was eventually found on June 24 at the bottom of a ravine, another 1,600 feet (500 meters) below. Sadly, nature was unforgiving – she was found dead. It’s believed she tried to find help on her own after waiting for some time but fell from another slope, this time fatally.
General thread for freediving and/or spearfishing, since I don't see one mentioning either.
My personal questions: I've been thinking about taking a certification course so I can learn to do these things correctly and safely. I'm probably happy just doing the diving, but spearfishing seems like an easy and practical extension. I only casually skindive and rod-and-reel fish at the moment. Does anyone have experience taking such a course? I know I'll need my own gear early on, but each instructor I can find seems to have their own equipment shops, so I imagine they wouldn't be impartial about the quality of other gear on the market. I live on the Pacific coast of the US, so I see that a 7 mm open cell wetsuit is strongly recommended. What good/bad features should I look out for on wetsuits and other equipment? For non-competitive diving, carbon fiber fins are almost certainly not worth the price, right?
Is /postholing/ really looked down in the hiking community? Boomers at my hiking group are mad at me for hiking during the snow storm in my state last week. They're complaining about me going up without snowshoes. I miscalculated the snow and ended up having to hike down 2 miles on knee deep snow.
What does your backpacking kit look like & what are your favorite pieces of gear you have that are unusual or greatly increased your quality of life on the trail? This is my basic kit alot of the gear is 10 years old or more I have recently added a camp chair & a little bidet that goes on a water bottle. My favorite piece of gear is not pictures but it is a frybake pan which is basically a lightweight dutch oven I will be using it on my trip at the end of this month to roast a chicken & make stuffing.