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gslater

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Posts posted by gslater

  1. From KATU's web site:

     

    The injured climber, Shaun Olcott, was taken by helicopter to a Portland hospital with a broken arm and broken ribs, said Detective Jim Strovink, spokesman for the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office.

     

    Legacy Emanuel Hospital representatives said Olcott is listed in serious condition.

     

    The second climber who died, Kenny Kasselder, suffered head and back injuries, died at the scene was recovered from the mountain Thursday evening.

  2. Is that 6 state troopers thing really true? Or is it a myth?

     

    I'm pretty sure it's more than 6, but it's not far from the truth. In Oregon, your odds of getting nailed by a state cop (and they WILL nail you, given half a chance) are much less than in Washington, simply due to much lower numbers of troopers. But when you DO caught, you're gonna pay, as that's about the only way of keeping the revenue up, offsetting the reduced number of cops.

     

    By the way, if you get pulled over by an OSP trooper, don't think you're going to be able to talk your way out of it. It's common opinion within local law enforcement communities that they'd ticket their own grandmothers.

  3. I saw that on the news last night; freaky indeed. Impressively scary rockfall sounds.

     

    I was gonna throw my beer bottle at the TV if they showed one more person reminding us all that it's really dangerous to climb an active volcano, and that it's illegal for us to choose to consciously put ourselves in danger on our public lands.

     

    (Not trying to start any thread drift here, but it was what I was thinking when I saw the story...)

  4. Since you mentioned the Cascades and the Olympics, I can only assume you want a phone that actually has a chance of working in more remote areas. And that means your options are limited to pretty much just AT&T or Verizon, since they're the only ones with any remaining analog networks. But they won't make it easy for you to get a phone or plan that lets you use the analog (or at least AT&T will make it very difficult; not sure about Verizon).

     

    Despite their aggressive push into GSM, I'm hanging on to my AT&T TDMA/analog phone for as long as possible, just for potential emergency mountain use. A few weeks ago I was on a climb of Bonanza, and was told not to bother bringing a cell phone, because it wouldn't be of any use out there anyway. But I did a test, and got 3 out of 4 bars of analog signal strength from the summit.

     

    The big downside is that around town, AT&T is switching their network over from TDMA to GSM at an incredible rate, and my regular urban cell phone experience is suffering. But I can live with that; the possibility of use in the mountains is more important to me.

  5. The southern side of Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado is excellent for speed. I hit 71 MPH there in a bike race about a decade ago. There's a multi-mile long "straightaway" (straight enough for bikes, anyway) that tilts significantly downhill. The combination of a steep, straight hill, my 220 lbs. of fat-assness, a bike with skinny tires pumped up to 130 PSI, age 20-something testosterone, very thin air at 10K+ feet, and a desperate desire to catch back up to the stickboys who blew me away on the climb up the pass will get you those kinds of speeds. Quite frightening, really. Especially since that straightaway ends in a hairpin turn with a huge drop off the back side. Was very glad to not have glued-on tires that day...

  6. ...is it possible to drive through the Yakama nation to bird creek camp ground and then hike 3 miles or so west to where the slog normally starts? Who would I call to get a permit, I wonder.

     

    Not unless you're American Indian. Driving access thru the res is out if you're not native. They won't even let Mountain Rescue into the res that way on missions. However, if you were to go stealth... shocked.gif

     

    Huh? We white non-native folk were just up there a couple of weeks ago. Drove straight into Bird Creek, no stealth required. Lots of guys from the rez were working in the area of the parking lot, and they were real friendly and said hi to us and so on. Not a single comment was made about access. I've heard that sometimes there'll be a guy out there to whom you pay $5 for the privilege of driving onto the reservation, but there wasn't anyone this time.

  7. I also saw that Lance had to add weight to his bike to get it up to the minimum weight of 6.8 kg. According to my calculator, that's just UNDER 15 freakin' pounds!

     

    Time for me to get a new bike...

  8. My foursome talked to that guy at about 13K that day. He was pretty cool; said that his kids/grandkids were complaining about him wanting to do the same old route over and over. I told him I thought he had earned the right to do whatever the hell he wanted. I've attached a pic.

    372815-81.jpg.d291d1f12fd9ef76bed3fb48d7d89a24.jpg

  9. I've tried to fit some Stubai Ultralights and BD Sabretooth onto my size 12 Eigers and Invernos. They are just too small. What do people use for size 12 and up?

     

    Were you trying on a pair of the "medium/large" Sabretooths, or the "small/medium" ones? I use the "M/L" ones on my size 13 boots with no problem, and they've still got plenty of expansion room left.

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