Most fatal decisions in the mountains do not feel irrational.

They feel efficient.

“We are already heading toward help; turning back wastes time.”

That is the danger of fixation. The plan slowly becomes more important than reality. Contradictory information gets ignored because changing course feels psychologically expensive.

In the Andes, commitment can accumulate quietly:

one more ridge,

one more traverse,

one more hour,

one more assumption.

The point of no return is often not terrain.

It is the moment the climber stops updating the plan.

“Straight ahead, one cannot go very far.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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