>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.

why does it seem like all you people want to go out and be “in le nature” but don’t give a single fuck about preserving ecosystems or native biodiversity? You feel entitled to go out and be in nature and treat it like your personal fucking playground, damaging the ecosystem and demanding roads and trails be paved through the wilderness so you can “heckin enjoy it”? And then go home and continue to fuel the 6th mass extinction with your destructive consumerist habits?
Anyway, I planted some Texas native wildflowers today to help the declining pollinator population in my area. What did you do?

Why haven't you gone winter camping yet this season /out/?

What, are you scared of a little cold?

Was he retarded? or free?

German anon here. Tomorrow, I will be heading to Decathlon to buy some hiking gear. I have never properly gone hiking before - at most, I have gone on 3-4 hour walks on forest trails. I will mainly be hiking in spring and autumn, and occasionally in summer, depending on the weather. Terrain wise, I will be mainly hiking in rather hilly areas with a few hundred meters of elevation, and more flat areas from time to time. I would also love to camp for a night or two while I'm at it, but if that's too much (budget wise), we can just stick with hiking gear for now.

Winter wanderings edition.

Who's had any good /out/ings so far this winter? Every aspect of your edged what kit have you worked on lately? What plans do you have for the coming spring?

How do you go about cooking /out/? What's the minimal gear needed to cook something you can call complex? What's the most complex dish you've prepared?