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PostWed Dec 13, 2006 1:21 pm 
Any member can edit this post What is the point of this post? For everyone to add an emoticon one edit at a time. biggrin.gif

Wiki summmary last edited by zimmertr on Tue May 14, 2019 6:34 pm (this post can be edited by any member)
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Spotly
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PostSat Dec 30, 2006 10:53 pm 
Went back one page. Read. Don't get it. ADDED: Or perhaps I'm unable to get it. eyes.gif

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jenjen
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PostSun Dec 31, 2006 9:41 am 
Let's keep this thread focused on safety tips and strategies. I like chatter as much as anybody else (see my post total for proof of that!), but if this thread veers too much off of it's focus folks will just give up reading it and the safety info will get buried again.

If life gives you melons - you might be dyslexic
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forest gnome
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PostSun Dec 31, 2006 2:35 pm 
One thing that I learned this summer was that the curtiss raft will hold at least 2 gallons of water and not sink! there was a sm. tear in the bottom...but the fishin was sooo good that I COULD NOT STOP.... the shore was an option for hiking back to camp. has anyone else seen, when ya hook a fish... that 2-3 others see him struggle ...and try to steal the fly, outta the hooked fishes mouth??

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forest gnome
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PostTue Jan 02, 2007 2:51 pm 
stay at least 5' away from friendly Marmotts dizzy.gif

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comedown_ALIVE
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PostWed Jan 03, 2007 11:38 pm 
forest gnome wrote:
stay at least 5' away from friendly Marmotts dizzy.gif
and more importantly the non-friendly. hungry.gif

When the power of love Over comes the love of power The world will know peace.
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Marmotneer
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PostSun Jan 07, 2007 2:30 pm 
Helix wrote:
Also it's good to try to avoid situations where you have someone climbing above you on a loose slope but it happens.
This brings to mind also what people are doing in the snow above you if you're going up, down or traversing. I was up at Granite mountain in the winter a few years ago, and we went up along the first chute on the winter route. We checked snow stability in the chute and it appeared good. There were people going up the chute and people glissading it. Once we were on the ridge (staying on icy firm snow next to the rocks) a couple of checks into the face brought about concerns of snow stability (much different than below), as it sheared at 6" to a foot, wind blown snow over hoar and firm snow. We got up top and the newbie with us wanted to slide down like everyone else (some had gone straight down), the rest of us (climbing 10+ years) told him no way. We were the last to leave the summit, and heading down we went along the ridge in firm conditions we saw going up, except the windload stuff that was warming up, and a quick check it was unstable (500' from the summit). On going down we came to a lone snow boarder hiking up in firm snow, where the snow was getting more stable out on the face. A few minutes later we start turning towards the chute, and the snow was definatly firm, but we straddled the top trees a bit until we could get a good aim to glissade the chute. I went first, and it was going fast down, a great glissade, my friends behind me as I'm nearing the final couple of hundered feet of the chute I notice snowballs flying around, thinking that its my friend behind me, I turn to look and see and see a 6' wall of snow going slightly faster than me. It took all my energy to lye flat and roll as hard as I could while glissading to my right up to the edge of the chute into small trees. I stood up and was out of harms way as this mass of snow maybe 25' wide is going by pretty quickly. Wow it was big, I first turned up to see if the others were in it, and the guy behind me was standing just out of the avalanche, but too close so I yelled "step back!!" and he couldnt hear me and a second wave came down over the still moving first wave and caught him in ankle deep snow and yanked him into the middle of the flow. As he went by me he was on top and yelled for him to roll out of it, which he did safely. Now what about the other two (we each took off glissading one minute apart on purpose) as we couldn't see them. Finally they came around into sight and came down to us (the flow had stopped by then) and we regrouped. One got slammed into a small tree but was ok and the newbie did not get caught in it but said "that was cool!". We looked at him after that nutty comment! He said that the snow boarder started off the top into the bowl and cut loose an avalanche that ended up sweeping the face and funneled into the chute where we were. We're all ok and the last guy on the mountain started an avalanche! We had to locate him, hopefully he had a transciever as a couple of did (not the newbie, rethink that one...). So we started hiking up the hill and finally we see the snowboarder walking his board down-all accounted for). He finally saw us and stopped. We asked if he was ok and no response other than just looking at us. My friend said something like watch out for those below (we had agreed to not harass him until we knew he was ok, or not to at all). Ok we are standing there and he's a couple hundered feet above us and we told him we were looking for him, still no response, he's just standing there. After a few moments we decide to start down, and then he starts down, when we stopped he stopped and wouldn't come near us. Finally at the parking lot loaded up the car and never saw the boarder again. Another short story, some of the same friends on Baker reconing some routes we stopped for a break at a flat spot to turn around, and watched a huge group below seracing and standing around, maybe a dozen or so. Two of us saw some rocks break off the mountain, started out slowly rolling and then became airborne. We yelled as loud as we could "ROCK!!" but they couldn't hear us as they were a couple hundered yards away and below us, maybe one guy turned and looked at us but the rest were standing around looking like they were practicing tying ropes or something. The football sized rocks kept coming down going faster and faster through the air by now each bounce heading right for them, we yelled but no responses as these rocks that were bouncing a hundered feet at a bounce and went over them, not hitting them. Scary. Lesson # xxxxx even if you are in seemingly safe conditions there could be someone above you or something that can turn the events.

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Helix
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PostMon Jan 08, 2007 1:55 am 
Marmotneer wrote:
Helix wrote:
Also it's good to try to avoid situations where you have someone climbing above you on a loose slope but it happens.
This brings to mind also what people are doing in the snow above you if you're going up, down or traversing.
Ah... I left out some important details. I wasn't on a snow slope. I was taking part in a search for debris from a downed aircraft. My team of about 13 people was searching an area about 60 feet wide and 300 feet long up a steep clearcut. there was some snow but it was only a dusting hear and there. I was roughly in the middle of the group and my path up the slope was covered in downed trees that I had to carefully crawl over. The formation was echelon leading from the right. the searcher just to my right had been able to move much faster over his bare path and had moved quite a bit above me. The people in the formation to my left were aproximately even with me or slightly lower but spread out accross the hill. It looked like this: ( Topo Veiw) "^" indicate direction of travel, "__ "indicates contour lines, "o" indicates person. Top of the hill ^ ___________________________^ ________________________________________^ o_ _____________________________________^ o____ __________________________________^ o_______ ______________________________^ o __________ _________________________ ^ o _____________ _______________________^ o ________________ _____________________ o < This guy kicked the rock loose ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ____________________^___________________ __________________^ o < This is me ______________^___o < This guy would have been hit by the rock but ___________^ o ______ it hit a tree after it hit me. ___________o____ Does that clear up why someone was above me? Now that I finished drawing a text map I re-read your comment and I'm not sure if you meant to ask what people were doing above me or if you were just commenting that it is good to keep an eye on what people are doing in the snow above you... which is a very good idea.

Such is life in the West. And the farther West the more the such.
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Marmotneer
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PostMon Jan 08, 2007 7:59 pm 
Helix wrote:
just commenting that it is good to keep an eye on what people are doing in the snow above you... which is a very good idea.
Just like you said in the last part, although we thought we were relatively safe things above can change that. Your situation sounds way different and glad you were ok. Your situation just made me think about similiar things that happened to/in front of me. cool.gif

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salish
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PostTue Jan 16, 2007 12:16 pm 
Seattle Times:Watch-sized transmitter may help lost hikers
FYI, Wednesday Seattle times. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003527153_weblosthikers16.html

My short-term memory is not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my short-term memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
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Helix
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PostWed Jan 17, 2007 12:38 am 
Project Lifesaver
I am a certified Project Lifesaver Operator. I can tell you that this technology absolutely works and in the application that it is currently used it is extremely effective. I think that it it would be possible to adapt it for hikers. My concern would be that it would act as a license for people who are not adequately skilled to venture into areas that they should not be in and think that rescue will surely find them. In an urban environment, the program works so well because of the speed at which searchers can cover an area, the quick reporting of a missing person allows searchers to narrow their focus to a very small area and terrain can usually be mitigated to a large degree. In a rugged mountain environment this will be extremely challenging. Rotary wing aircraft will be the only option to make this program even remotely plausible. Given the limitations on a rotary wing aircraft's range and ability to function in poor weather. I think anyone who counts on this to save them in Denali would be much better served by a GPS emergency locator beacon. Thanks for finding this Article! I'm going to print it out and take it to my SAR meeting tomorrow night.

Such is life in the West. And the farther West the more the such.
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Leenerella
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PostThu Jan 18, 2007 4:20 pm 
Small, but important rules learned through experience: A combination of mild sunburn, a mostly-cotton sports bra, and a sweaty, uphill trek can lead to unstoppable shivering when you come back to camp after sunset. I'll confess that I was more than likely a little dehydrated, too. I put on every layer I had, wrapped a sleeping bag around me, sat on a foam pad and drank something hot, but I still couldn't stop shaking. We had planned to sleep under the stars that night, but hubby put his foot down and took me into the tent and stripped me down and got me in the mummy bags (and not in the fun way). Yeah, cotton kills, and night falls fast - that was my lesson. * * * The "always bring a light, even when you're only dayhiking" rule has been beaten into me at least twice. Now we have extra headlamps that live in our daypacks permanently.

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mpaul_hansen
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PostSat Jan 20, 2007 10:36 am 
past thread .....CLOSE CALLS FROM ROCKFALL
a past thread from Nov. 12, 2004 on ROCKFALL and near-misses .... ========================= Fri Nov 12, 2004 7:54 pm Subject: Close Calls from Rockfall .... Another topic -since avalanches just discussed & rockfalls also mentioned... SR 20 repairs extensive due to past massive rockfall, as noted in other threads of the past...but just recently a 40' x 20' x 15' boulder rolled off Mt Ross in the Newhalem WA area .......narrowly missing a 230 kV electrical transmission tower. Granite/grandidorite, more or less... Intend to submit pictures of the chunk of Mt Ross later and the spot on the mtn cliff where it peeled off ...FYI, it nearly hit the High Voltage lines in the vicinity. What appeared to be solid was not. [but this is small compared to slides that come down every few years just East of Newhalem, WA blocking SR20, sometimes for lengthy periods. Thought this might be of interest given the recent Aussie adventure racer fatality. Was nearly done in myself high on the northface of Chair Peak by others coming up the west side, who were carelessly pushing off loose cobbles and flakes. Was hit on the left arm by a 1 foot chunk traveling at high speed, but was only a grazing blow. Could have been lethal of course.

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Elvis
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PostMon Jan 22, 2007 6:31 pm 
Pardon the drift, I'm wondering if this is the part of Mt. Ross that mpaul_hansen mentioned above. This was taken Aug 2006.
Newly exposed rock
Newly exposed rock
It looks like what I would call a 'slab', not a boulder, however. Please use caution out there. ~E

"Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas." ~John Dryden My Trip List
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Helix
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PostMon Jan 22, 2007 11:44 pm 
Good book
I picked up a copy of Accidents in North American Mountaineering. (2005 edition) Its really making me feel guilty and lucky about all the stuff I got away with without a scratch as a kid.

Such is life in the West. And the farther West the more the such.
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Elvis
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PostThu Feb 01, 2007 6:06 pm 
On a less adventuresome note: I highly recommend you test any 'new recipe' at home before you take it out on the trail. Last year I came across a delicious sounding trail snack that involved corn flakes and some orange-sticky-stuff. Actually - I was contemplating bringing it to the 2006 social at JenJens - but it was horrible. You are all lucky I left it at home. It wasn't garbage, but it was too sticky for the trail by all means and the taste was... unusual. down.gif More recently, I found a cheesy fondue recipe in Backpacker magazine. Sounded great for a nice trail warm-me-up while snowshoeing. Decided I'd better test it at home... UGH! Straight into the garbage. It could have been good... should have been good... but I think they had their measurements all whacked up. down.gif No... it's not just the cook. Really. dizzy.gif

"Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas." ~John Dryden My Trip List
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