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gslater

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Posts posted by gslater

  1. Some people would say the Map 60 series is overkill, but I'm a bit of a navigation geek, and I've had a GPSMap 60C for a couple of years now. Very pleased with it, especially with the battery life. Great display. Mine is the version before they made it with the memory cards, so I just missed out on that benefit.

     

    I also have the Garmin City Navigator software, and load maps onto the unit so I can use it as an in-car navigation system. Not the biggest display for that use, but entirely adequate.

  2. The Houdini is nothing like the others; it's basically a very light windbreaker. Calling it a softshell is REEAAALLLLYYYYY stretching the definition.

     

    I have not one, not two, but three pairs (two normal, and one zip-off) of the REI Mistral pants, but no jacket. They've all been used heavily over the past few years, and have held up extremely well. Have proven to be far tougher than I expected for the weight.

  3. I saw this pack in the store today; seems pretty damn decent, especially for the price. Personally, I've found REI packs to be pretty comfy, and my all-time favorite, most used pack is an REI pack that I've had since about 1987. Maybe they did things differently back then, but that pack has been through hell and keeps on a truckin'. Still my fave, but it's getting VERY tired.

  4. A Heading is a magnetic bearing towards a destination. A map bearing is a true bearing. GPS units can be programmed to give magnetic bearings or headings.

     

    Not quite. "Heading" is the direction in which you're "pointing" (for lack of a better term) at a given moment. "Bearing" is the direction from one point (typically your current point) to another point. Both headings and bearings can be either magnetic or true.

     

    And then there's "track", which is the direction you're actually "going" over the ground at a given moment. In an airplane, your bearing, heading, and track enroute to a given point rarely are aligned.

  5.  

    Note the terminology that trad_guy used in his response. He said that the GoTo function gives you the BEARING to the other waypoint, which is what you want for navigating via compass as you described. This is the correct terminology. I'm sure that's what you meant when you asked about "heading", but heading and bearing are not the same thing.

  6. I don't know if they're still available, but the HB El Cap adjusts up to a pretty big size. A friend and I each have them for our large-ish heads, since they're about the helmets we've found that allow us to wear decently thick hats under them. Got that old-school look going on too....

  7. Jesus Christ you like to speculate…..oh wait….im sorry…I forgot. You were there and know exactly what happened.

     

    Actually, no, I don't like to speculate. My comment was not speculation. But you sure do like to hysterically defend something in which you were not personally involved either...

     

    As someone else said above, have your friends come out and offer up some useful information, rather than making the media tour about their miracle survival. Their appearances are not doing any good for this activity that we all love.

     

    I was somewhat annoyed when I saw them on ABC the other morning. When the interviewer (Diane Sawyer?) said something like "it's just incredible that you survived a fall of 500 feet!", I was hoping/expecting them to say something like "well, I tumbled down a snow slope and got banged up a bit in the process. I'm not really sure how far it was. And it's not like I fell of a 500 foot cliff or anything..." And then, perhaps to make a point of thanking everyone for helping them out, and acknowledging the climbing community and its solid VOLUNTEER spirit. And maybe acknowledge that a better choice in travel plans could have ben made. Instead, they just kind of sat there grinning, and said nothing to clear up what actually happened, leaving the uninformed viewers to speculate about the life-or-death drama that happens to us crazy climbers.

     

    Admittedly, I wasn't there, and no, I don't know what actually happened. But I've spent enough time in the mountains, and in that exact area specifically, to believe that this big fall was actually a tumble down a steep hill, and not a free fall off a cliff. Letting people believe it was something else is lame.

     

    Or perhaps I'm totally wrong.

  8. These folks are doing a disservice to the climbing community by sensationalizing their rescue in the media. Its pouring gas on the debate over MLU requirements.

     

    Also doing disservice to the climbing community are the officials (sheriff deputies and perhaps SAR) who were quoted on TV and in the paper as saying this group "did everything right, and that's what led to their rescue". Ummmm, maybe they did everything right after they realized they were hosed and called for help, but if they truly "did everything right", the world would never have heard of Velvet the wonderdog.

  9. The truth is that they walked down, and probably didn't need the "rescue".

     

    I heard the reports that they were going to walk down, but then saw a news story yesterday that said they actually hopped a snowcat ride for "just the last 2 miles", which I suppose is just about how far they were from T-line. I can imagine them walking out of the canyon, and then hopping into a snowcat.

  10. The problem is that even though my taxes have already paid the costs of this rescue, next year's emergency rescue budget, therefore, my taxes will rise.

     

    Fees are charged for access to other national lands, why not Mt. Hood?

     

    Your taxes will not be increased next year as a result of this search any more than they'll be increased as a result of having 5 deputies spending 8 hours at the home of some tweaker out in Estacada. Budgets/taxes aren't set by tallying up the minute details of the costs in any given year.

     

    A better question regarding national lands access fees is "why have fees at all?". Why should I have to pay anything (other than my exisitng very high tax load) to access them?

     

    And fees ARE charged for Mt. Hood the same as any other national forest. The exception/difference is with access from Timberline due to the commercial nature of the ski area.

  11. It cost more than $20,000 to Clackamas and Hood River county taxpayers for this latest Mt. Hood rescue.

     

    Guess it's time to start requiring permits and fees to climb Hood to offset these numerous rescue costs.

     

    Oh how I do love it when people make these sorts of statements (even in jest). Nobody in Clackamas or HR counties is going to receive any kind of special tax assessment for this rescue. They've already paid for it in their regular taxes. As a society, we assign certain responsibilities to the sheriff departments (including search & rescue), and provide a certain amount of money from taxes (not usually enough) to cover those responsibilties.

     

    I find it very interesting (and depressing/annoying) when certain people point out certain events as "costing" a department something, and then proceed to start screaming "charge them for it!!!!", just because it's something with which they're unfamiliar. Where's the outcry over all the other things that are "costing" us all something?

     

  12. GPS would have prevented this if they had taken a point reading at Timberline. I have this stored in my GPS, so every time I am up there, I can get back to Timberline.

     

    My GPS has not only Timberline, but also Silcox, the top of Palmer, the summit, and Crater Rock waypoints tucked away. Might as well have 'em, I figure...

     

    I too will sit and wait to hear the details about what actually happened on this one, but I'm a bit dumbfounded how a group can be "well-equipped", including GPS, and leave IS just to apparently stumble over the edge into the WR canyon. Sounds like someone might need a little bit of nav practice.

     

    Glad to hear all are apparently OK, especially the pooch.

  13. He's obviously just a reckless thrill seeker, and he should have to pay.

     

    How could anyone be stupid as to go out in the ocean during the northern hemisphere's winter?

     

    It's just wrong to put his family through this, and to endanger the lives of the rescuers.

     

    Any others I forgot?

  14. So would you rather have to look at the poster, or actually go to his concert next Monday, like I do?

     

    You don't HAVE to! It's a choice! Take some responsibility for your actions.

     

    Are you married?

  15. A friend who grew up in a heavily Mormonish part of Idaho told me that Mormon families almost always have a large trampoline in the back yard. Perhaps it's to get all those damn kids out of the house. I don't know. Ever since then (this was back in '97 or so), whenever I meet someone who grew up Mormon, I ask if they had a trampoline while growing up. I'd say that 90+% of them answer in the affirmative, and then they usually ask me how I knew that.

  16. PDX mercury is right. The 3-story Barry Manilow poster is unacceptable. I don't care what cause it's for. I have to look at that thing every fucking day, Barry, leering down on me as I go to work.

     

    So would you rather have to look at the poster, or actually go to his concert next Monday, like I do?

     

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