genepires

couple people killed by falling trees between stevens and l'worth. Sad day. U.S. HWY 2 CLOSED FROM STEVENS PASS TO LEAVENWORTH December 23, 2012 WSDOT web cam shot of summitt of Stevens Pass. CLICK TO ENLARGE(STEVENS PASS, WA) --U.S. Highway 2 from Stevens Pass (milepost 64) at the summit to milepost 99 at the west end of Leavenworth is closed due to the potential for snow-laden trees to fall onto the roadway, according to the Washington State Dep’t of Transportation (WSDOT). The highway was closed in both directions at 6:25 p.m. Saturday due to fallen trees on the roadway from heavy rains that have loosened the soil and snow on tree limbs that pose a threat to more trees falling without warning. In fact two residents of Bothell, Washington were killed Friday afternoon in a freak accident near Stevens Pass when a tree fell on their 1999 Chevrolet Suburban. The state patrol says the accident happened about 1:20 p.m. in Chelan County, eastbound on Highway 2 some 21 miles west of Leavenworth. Killed in the accident were the driver, identified as 58-year-old Timothy Desmond and a passenger Cheryl Janine Reed, 56, both of Bothell. Four other passengers were injured and transported to a hospital in Wenatchee. They were identified as Jeremy M. Owen, 22, of Bothell, 24-year old Jamie O. Mayer of Seattle, Steven T. Mayer, 24, of Seattle and Jessica J. Owen, 27, of Bothell. A report by KOMO-TV Seattle described Tim and Cheryl Owen of Bothell as a mother and father who were killed in that accident in front of their adult children. They had all been on a family outing together. Tim was described as a Bothell soccer coach and Lynnwood businessman and his wife Cheryl as a manager at Amazon.com in Seattle. Officials say conditions on Highway 2 will be evaluated Sunday morning to determine a reopening strategy. Motorists will be able to access the Stevens Pass Ski Area from the west, but through-traffic is advised to use I-90 Snoqualmie Pass and US 97 Blewett Pass. Less than 2” of snow fell through the closure zone on Saturday. The next front is forecast to bring as much as 3” to 4” of snow late Sunday morning through the evening. The Chronicle will have updates as details become available.

if the 2nd ammendment says we need to right to bear arms for a legitimate "militia", then why not allow citizens to own guns only if they are active members of the national guard or miitary? Then for the national guard annual service requirement, they can stand guard at the schools. Win-Win.

imagine the safety if we had BOTH armed guards and the wackos did not have guns? but my idea is just too crazy to work. much better to have a good old shooting match.

mt si? not sure of the driving time to n bend and back but definately the most vert within easy drive from seattle. maybe tiger mtn if you want to trail run for a workout. maybe try a tall buildings stairwells? climb up, elevator down. 5 stories is plenty.

did you bushwack in them? or maybe gave it a vaccine? it is all a conspiracy. nothing really important to add. sorry for the waste of time and electrons.

I think you are suggesting that you pass the rope through the bolt or sling directly. Please, this is in jest.

Care to elaborate? Eric sorta in is standard operate condition for pan dome. usually there. in good condition rarely. But does get done usually when in "sorta" conditions. In other words, a fine top rope.

why not fix some old thick rope up that nasty corner?

with total respect to all, but it is just a stinking quickdraw. For the most part, they are all very good. The minor differences are negliable. get whatever is decent and on sale. I would choose durablility for a sport draw so the kind that is wide like Layton mentions is good. Pick a biner that you can use with your hand. (not too tiny) Try to keep the set all the same so you know exactly what you are getting every time you pull a draw off the harness. No mixed bag of draws of different lengths that usually build up from a gradual buying of draws and finding gear.

not following the logic. would seem like if there were no rescues or poorly done rescues, then the funding would be in jeapardy. Simple and high publicity rescues like this would be encouraging for even more financial resources.

I can attest to that. Not 10 minutes from paradise, coming down from muir in a complete whiteout, I walked right off a small cornice. Did not see the drop off at all till after I fell down the 5 feet and was looking back up at my partner. Was funny at the time but it showed how bad things can get in a complete whiteout.

maybe a breathalyzer needs to be part of a PC operating system.

please put down the crack pipe.

+1 bravo!

maybe wet rock if John's idea of a "good time". Me, I prefer hot cocoa at home during days like this.

pretty bold statement. Do you even know the guy? How are you so sure of his map/compass skills? I consider myself really good with map and compass use and I have one experience where even with diligent use of the tools and using a rope team to keep it going the right way, I was still way off due to the accumulated errors inherent in the system. Granted it was on a flat ice field, without the benefit of a fall line, but sometimes things go wrong.

http://vimeo.com/54230904 warning. big pow. big mountains. snowboarder. something to get you through a wet weekend.

having clients die anywhere is bad for business. But seriously, guides don't do it for the money just like teachers don't teach for the money. They do it (especially if they have been guiding for more than 5 years) cause they care about people.

opinions are like......well you know. And I got one of each. I would suggest to buy double ropes in pairs. Have them the same age and previous use is better than having an old a new one. Now if the "old" rope was 6 months old, then it would not matter.

The degree of safeness is in the order of .1% safer. cause the situation is so specific that it is easily remedied. you want an example, here is one. Lets make the difference in lengths longer to illustrate the situation. -Lets use your 60 and 70 m rope differential. - you forget to tie knots in the end of the ropes. -it is a 65m rappel. -you look down see one end on the ground and mistakenly think it is ok to go - you never notice that the 60m rope end it not touching and it goes through your brake hand -you fall 15 ft to ground or farther Three mistakes (no knot, no visual that both ends on ground and not being hyper vigilant about the rope ends) to make it happen. Unlikely but possible. I know because I have done the 3 mistakes and have fallen 15 feet. Now take that to this current situation. With unequal ends, there is a chance that one end will be on the ground and the other not. So you may see one end on the ground and assume that both are. Granted it will be a 6ft fall at worst but in my case, my 15 ft fall lead to another 20 ft fall below the belay ledge. So the 6ft may lead to a longer fall. SO how safer is it to have equal lengths? maybe 1% but still safer and requires multiple mistakes to be made.

you could be if you wanted to. (actuary, not removal from hazard pool)

if you are rapping more than 58m ... yr dead regardless of whether its 2 58m or a 58m+ 60m ... except this time BOTH ends zip out of your plate ... if its not > 58m neither will zip out ... again can anyone give me an example where 2 58m is safer than a 58m+ 60m on the same rap???? or are we just trying to win an intraweb argument here without thinking about it first ... i have a mammut galaxy 10mm and a tendon ambition 10.2mm ... they are both theoretically 60m but there is probably a 2m difference between em form the factory .. are you saying that it is UNSAFE to use both on a 60m rap ????? you do realize that people rap off a rope + 7mm tag line where due tor stretch and sizing there is very likely a 2m+ difference all the time ... are they "unsafe" THINK people ... dont just go "unsafe, unsafe, unsafe" maybe you should slow down and read what people are saying. Dave is not saying one is safe and the other unsafe. He is saying one is safer than the other. And that difference is very small but still measurable. Also people are questioning whether the inconvenience of having uneven ropes is low enough to warrant keeping uneven ropes. where is anyone saying one situation is unsafe? put down the crack pipe.

nocturnal pee emissions is a good reason to use a synthetic bag.

Actually his choice is between rapping 59 or 58, so the difference is 3 feet, not 6, which makes it even more sensible to me to even up the ropes. damn metric system. math was never my strong point.

never been on hood in winter but I have heard that it can get wind scoured so that hard snow is exposed. Usually ski poles are more useful than ice axes for volcanoes in the winter. good luck and be conservative. I am sure you are familiar with the winter hood tragedies.