It seems like a growing disease as far as I'm concerned. Too many people with too much money and wanting a thrill they can tell their friends about. Yeah, sure I might be an landscape architect during the week but on weekends I spend thousands of dollars to climb mountains and shit in the woods. Muy macho! The authorities should just call off the search and wait for the spring thaw. If the corpses don't show up by then, at least the wolves or whatever wild animals up there will have had a good meal.
Oh, and I loved this little bit from a CNN article about the dorks:
Friends and family members described the climbers as well prepared for their hobby and the ordeal they faced on Mount Hood.
...
Cooke sought information on climbing Web sites. Posting under the name Fuggedaboudit, according to The New York Times, Cooke was on the forum of the CascadeClimbers.com Web site in mid-November asking for advice for the climb and saying it would be his first time on the Oregon mountain.
Well god knows he must've been well prepared if he used the internets. I've been posting on the forums at SurgeryAtHome.com and I think I'm about ready to perform my first appendectomy. Any volunteers?