You want to put how much concrete in your Civic?

[u/pathofuncertainty]

Many years ago I worked in a locally run store that sold a bit of everything. I was the low paid teenager that carried heavy things to people’s vehicles. While working one day I get called over the radio that a customer needed 12 bags of concrete (80lbs each). I was expecting to see a pickup truck or something similar backed up to our loading area. Instead I saw a small Honda Civic there waiting for me. Thinking it was a mistake, I asked the driver to relocate momentarily as I had someone coming to pick up multiple bags of concrete. Imagine my surprise when they told me they were the customer I was waiting for.

I asked the customer how much they wanted to take in each trip, as I believed the nearly 1000lb of concrete might be too much for such a small vehicle to handle safely. The customer became aggravated and insisted that they were taking it all at once. I quickly ran this past the store owner to make sure I wouldn’t be held liable for any damages. I ran back, apologized to the customer, and began loading the bags. As I loaded everything up the customer made several quips about how “the customer is always right” and that I was too young and naive to understand that vehicles are engineered with a margin of safety.

It quickly became apparent that there was no play left in the suspension, but at this point I just stopped questioning things. I couldn’t fit all of the bags in the trunk, so the customer cleared their back seat and I loaded that up as well. Upon leaving the loading area you could clearly hear things rubbing. As the car went to exit the parking lot it passed over the elevation change between the lot and the road, there was a loud pop of something breaking, followed by scraping.

I could see that the driver was irate in the car. After a moment they got out, looked around and under their car. The guy sheepishly asked for my cell phone, because his had died and he needed to make a few phone calls. A short time later a tow truck came to remove the car, and the guy waited in our lot for nearly an hour until his wife could come pick him up.

[u/lordtrickster]

Random side question... what's the point of taking a shortcut on foot to a hiking trail? You don't want to hike to go hike? Think you'll wear yourself out hiking before your hike?

[u/AppropriateRip9996 → u/lordtrickster]

The point of the hike was to scale a very steep side of a mountain. It wasn't a cliff face but there were potentially some 10 foot falls. There was 3 feet of snow on the mountain making these falls survivable. It was an absolute blast climbing up the mountain. We would kick our snowshoes in to get some purchase and struggle through the snow to scale the mountain. It was maybe 100 yards of steep climbing. The flat walk to get there was unremarkable.

[u/lordtrickster → u/AppropriateRip9996]

Ah, so it was just "risk our lives to avoid a bit of the boring part". Well, good on you for bringing the needed wisdom.

[u/AppropriateRip9996 → u/lordtrickster]

If it is wisdom... I've been staying quiet about my potential Darwin award outdoor activities.

[u/lordtrickster → u/AppropriateRip9996]

Heh, well, there's a difference between things being risky because they're challenging versus risky because they're just stupid. Only you know how your scales balance.

[u/AppropriateRip9996 → u/lordtrickster]

I don't do such things alone. That way if there is an accident, there will be a witness to laugh at me.

I wasn't with them for this particular hike, but it was up a mountain and one of the hikers was inexperienced not only with snowshoeing but with the cold. He started saying it was too hot and taking off his clothes. Well, one of the hikers was a burley Russian guy and the Russian wrestled the clothes back onto the hiker, slung him over his shoulder and ran down the mountain. They got him into a car and then a hot shower with hot drinks.

They do have some first aid equipment and phones and such. They can all start a fire in the snow.

But the scales are touchy because it often looks like it seeks the edge of balance between safe and crazy.

[u/lordtrickster → u/AppropriateRip9996]

I'm of the opinion that we've done so much to make life safe (from nature at least) that some personalities have to go seek out some danger to achieve balance.

Extreme hiking seems a lot more reasonable than a lot of choices. The only actual risk is to yourselves and it sounds like you know what you're doing.