[dvt]

With @kepler1 on this one. This is an overly-dramatized Instagrammer's take on a pretty low-stakes situation with plenty of leeway. I'm not even particularly outdoorsy and I've got crazier stories (involving bears, pulling people out of overturned cars, etc.). I was out kayaking this weekend, and even though we were just barely 2 hours out of LA, we were acutely aware and tracking smoke/fires in the San Bernardino Mountains.

With that said, hiking into a high-risk area with already a few known fires nearby is just stupid and it could've been really bad. I'd like to hope they learned their lesson.

[xiainx]

There are several other subthreads about this already, but there's not really any evidence to suggest these folks made a bad or risky decision. The area they were hiking too was above treeline, so not really at any risk of burning in a wildfire. And the "known" wildfires nearby were either nearly completely contained, or hundreds of miles away.

You can complain about their photography all you want, but I suspect most experienced hikers would agree that these people didn't make any bad decisions here.

[lucaswoj]

We live in Mammoth Lakes and are in the wilderness almost every day. Whether it’s avalanches, thunderstorms, or something else, the risk and beauty go hand in hand out there.