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JERRY_SANCHEZ

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Everything posted by JERRY_SANCHEZ

  1. Hey Erden I saw your group of 8 when I was on the West Ridge of Forbidden. You guys were bunch of dots moving up towards Sahale Peak. Also on the West ridge, I kept on smelling marijuana and we were the only party up there. Did someone forgot their weed up there?
  2. Yes that was us.... My friend's Megalight Tent works really well especially on the snow. Super light, packs in small, and large height and floor space. Yes the colouir was "spicy" plus decending the West Ridge can be stressful as you have to downclimb most of it. Takes just as long to get down then go up. We arrived back at camp around 6:30 and back at the car around 8:30. At home around midnight and now here at work with a big headache.
  3. Hey were you the ones we met up at high camp on Saturday evening? We made it to the top Sunday and encounter just one party up there. Surprise there was not that many people up there this past weekend. That colouir was pretty sketchy. Great pictures and TR!
  4. I did the West Ridge yesterday and the snow is melting fast. The moat in the couloir has collapsed but it is not that big of an issue to get around it. The only concern is the stuff (rock/snow) that falls down in the couloir. We had a big chuck of snow crashing down on us. There is still fair amount of snow in the couloir but it will not last that long. I would say in 3 weeks or less depending on how long this hot weather trend will last. I would say to do the route now. The west ridge rock is in perfect conditons. Be weary on some of the rappel anchors with slings. The rock moved when we try to rappel off of it. The east ridge looks good and probably better to descend then going down that couloir in the hot afternoon. There is still fair amount snow on the east ridge approach.
  5. Police chief hopes to reduce Highway 2's dangers 05:50 PM PDT on Tuesday, April 18, 2006 By JANE McCARTHY / KING 5 News MONROE, Wash. – Sultan Police Chief Fred Walser has placed crosses at dozens of crash sites along Highway 2. He hopes that the crosses will prompt others to think about the victims and their families. One cross is for Dick Montgomery, a father who adopted and fostered 13 children while raising four of his own. Just down the road are crosses for Robert Moore and his wife Donna Jo, who was Walser's secretary. There are many more. Since 1999, 40 people have died on the stretch of Highway 2 between Snohomish and Skykomish. It's a statistic people who live there know too well. But despite the highway's poor track record, Highway 2 has been largely overlooked when it comes to improvement funds. That's why Walser is hoping that more citizens will support his "US2 Safety Coalition." He wants to see the two-lane road eventually become a four-lane, divided highway. Tuesday night, the coalition hopes to spark that support with a public safety summit at Sultan Middle School. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. with a very special ceremony - a vigil - to remember those lives lost on US2. The meeting is expected to last about 3 hours.
  6. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002914024_dimitri06m.html He's an amazing guy " By Susan Gilmore Seattle Times staff reporter COURTESY DIMITRI KIEFFER An iced-over Dimitri Kieffer, during his trek across the frozen Bering Strait. Kieffer, of Seattle, never shies away from adventure, his friends say. Kieffer's latest trek, with Briton Karl Bushby, has been halted by Russian authorities. Dimitri Kieffer worked for Microsoft for 15 years as a globalization manager. For Seattle adventurer Dimitri Kieffer, taking on challenges is the stuff he's made of, but his latest adventure was more than he expected. "Keep in mind that the odds are against us, considering the fact that no one has made a successful crossing in the past in the winter from the U.S. to Russia," he wrote in a recent e-mail to friends. "As someone stated to me, if it was possible it would have been done before. Well, we are going to give it our best." Kieffer, with fellow adventurer Karl Bushby from England, are now in Russian custody after crossing the 56-mile stretch of the frozen Bering Strait on foot from Alaska. The adventurers were picked up by authorities entering the small settlement of Uelen, near the point where the Bering Seat meets the Chukchi Sea. Because they didn't enter at a border crossing, they had no stamps in their passports and were detained. To his friends in Seattle, this is the ultimate Kieffer story, another chapter in a storied life of a man who shucked his career with Microsoft to travel the world in search of grueling adventures. Like the one last year, in which he did the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on foot, pulling a 150-pound sled over 1,100 miles. It took him 41 days, said his friend Don Wahl, and that's where he met Bushby, who is trying to walk from the tip of South America to Britain. He persuaded Kieffer to join him on his Bering Strait walk. It wasn't a tough sell, said Kieffer's friends. They said Kieffer's mission in life is to do all the tough endurance races he can find. That's why he ran 145 miles across Death Valley in 140-degree heat and raced, biked, hiked, kayaked and rafted 600 miles across Vietnam. He also crossed the tip of Africa on foot, bicycle and kayak. Erik Nachtrieb, a fellow adventurer, said that when Kieffer first attempted the Death Valley race he didn't finish it, so he went back and completed it, but not in the cutoff time. So he did it all again and finished on time. "Once it's in his book, he'll make sure he'll do it," said Nachtrieb. "If he hadn't completed the Bering crossing, he'd do it again and again until he made sure it was done." Kieffer, 40, worked for Microsoft for about 15 years as a globalization manager, a position that makes sure Microsoft programs are understandable around the world. Nachtrieb said he spoke with Kieffer about quitting his job. "He said he was thinking of some things he had to do in life," said Nachtrieb. "He said he could always go back to work, but didn't know if he could go back to this part of his life." Born in France, Kieffer visited Seattle as an exchange student, attended Puyallup High School and fell in love with the area. He moved here and took the job with Microsoft. He became a naturalized citizen last year. Nachtrieb said Kieffer told him that he had concerns that he didn't have all the paperwork he needed to walk into Russia, but he didn't expect to get arrested. "He's a very focused individual and very determined," Nachtrieb said. "When he's going to set out and do something, he'll do it." While he was hauling equipment for the crossing, he and Bushby were in a tent sleeping on a block of ice and awoke to find the ice had broken loose and they had drifted 28 miles out to sea. They had to be rescued by helicopter and Kieffer suffered frostbite on a finger. But that didn't stop them from completing their walk. They even had to swim with protective suits for part of the trip. While the crossing was 56 miles, Nachtrieb figures they actually went more than 150 miles because of the shifting ice that caused them to backtrack. Jennifer VanGorder met Kieffer through adventure racing and called his determination contagious. "He makes you want to go out there and do things," she said. "He is one person who is excited about life. He loves life, loves pushing it and experiencing it." Nachtrieb said he and Kieffer next want to row across the Atlantic Ocean, from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas, in a 32-foot open boat. Maybe in two or three years. Another Microsoft friend and adventure racer, Michelle Maislen, said she's going to try to persuade Mayor Greg Nickels to issue a proclamation honoring Kieffer when he returns to Seattle. "He's an amazing guy who has an unrelenting will to finish things," she said. "He won't quit."
  7. Trail to crater rim at Mount St. Helens may be reopened 07:08 AM PST on Thursday, March 16, 2006 Associated Press AP Mount St. Helens, in southwest Washington, vents steam over a new coat of snow that fell during several days of blustery, wintery weather. VANCOUVER, Wash. - A trail to the south rim of the crater of Mount St. Helens, closed since the start of a domebuilding eruption in late September 2004, may be reopened this year, officials say. No decision has been made, but National Forest Service officials began accepting conditional climbing reservations last month, Tom Mulder, manager of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, told The Columbian of Vancouver. “The public is interested,” Mulder said. “It’s a recreation niche, a learning opportunity, and we want to serve the public well.” The climbing season traditionally begins on May 15, and the number of permits historically has been limited to 100 a day, half by reservation and half by a daily lottery. “Climbers will be taking on the responsibility for exposing themselves to any risk that they may encounter,” Mulder said, “temperature extremes to slippery slopes to things that may fall out of the sky.” Tom Pierson, a local U.S. Geological Survey geologist, tentatively plans to lead a guided hike arranged through the nonprofit Mount St. Helens Institute to the rim in August. “It will be great to see the new view and to take pictures to compare,” Pierson said. If the trail is reopened, climbers could get a close-up look at the relatively quiet oozing of molten rock at the rate of about a pickup truck load per second into the gaping horseshoe-shaped crater from the volcano’s explosive eruption of May, 18, 1980. That blast killed 57 people and removed the top 1,300 feet of the once-symmetrical peak. Most of what was blown away was a lava dome built in quieter eruptions like the current one over the previous 400 years. The trail to the 8,300-foot south rim from Climber Bivouac, as well as other trails above 4,800 feet, have been closed since Sept. 26, 2004, shortly after the most recent volcanic activity began. Officials said they were concerned about the possibility that steam explosions could blast rock out of the crater. Based on the volcano’s behavior since the eruption began, the hazard appears to be low, Pierson said. Despite a few big steam and ash spurts, including one that sent a plume towering to an elevation of 36,000 feet, no rocks have been hurled outside the crater.
  8. Alpine Lakes permit area may grow By The Associated Press LEAVENWORTH — The U.S. Forest Service is considering expanding the permit area for the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, a popular hiking and climbing region in north-central Washington. The wilderness area in the Cascade Range west of Wenatchee will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year. In response to a growing number of visitors, the Forest Service began requiring permits in 1987 for the Enchantment Lakes. The permit area was expanded in 1996 to include Colchuck, Stuart, Eightmile and Caroline lakes. Permits are required from June 15 through Oct. 15. Next year, the ranger district may begin the public process to expand the permit area to address overcrowding at nearby Mount Stuart, Ingalls Lake and Headlight Creek Basin, all in Chelan County. "That area is way overused on weekends," said Lisa Therrell, wilderness manager for the Wenatchee River Ranger District. The existing permit areas receive about 100,000 day and overnight visitors each year, Therrell said. The permits allow just 60 people per night within the permit area. Day use is unlimited, but visitors are required to get a self-issuing permit at the trailheads. Officials with the ranger district began randomly opening applications Monday for overnight permits for this summer. About 1,000 applications had been received, of which about 600 will be accepted. Requests came from as far away as Poland and Liechtenstein, as well as across the United States and Canada. Some applicants wrote "please, please, please!" on the application, while others promised to respect the natural area if their application was picked. Some, like an applicant from Alabama, draw pictures on their envelopes for attention. "That has no effect" on their chances, Therrell said. "But we do enjoy them." Applications received after Monday have little chance of getting a permit. Three-fourths of the wilderness permits are issued in the reservation lottery. The remaining one-fourth are issued each morning at the ranger district office during the summer. Costs remain at $3 per person per day.
  9. There has been another fatality on the popular hike on Mt. Dickerman. Does anyone know where this dangerous area is? I hiked up many times and only found the summit ridge to be dangerous. 10:09 PM PST on Monday, February 20, 2006 From KING 5 Staff and Wire Reports GRANITE FALLS, Wash. - A hiker reported overdue near Mount Dickerman in Snohomish County was found dead Monday by searchers. The sheriff's office says the man was reported overdue Sunday night and the body was found early Monday. The man, a Snohomish County resident in his 50s, was found in rugged terrain and appeared to have fallen, although the cause of death has not been determined. The man's name has not yet been released. Mount Dickerman is near Granite Falls, northeast of Everett. Several days ago, another man slipped and died in the same area.
  10. JERRY_SANCHEZ

    Naked Man

    Naked man killed on I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass 10:52 AM PST on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 Associated Press and KING Staff Reports Naked man killed on I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass NORTH BEND, Wash.- The State Patrol is investigating how a naked man was struck and killed on I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass. The man, who appeared to be in his 20s or 30s, was killed about 4 a.m. when he ran into the path of a truck. The driver says he came out of nowhere. The victim reportedly had been driving a Chevy Blazer SUV on westbound I-90. He reportedly crossed the median and three lanes of traffic and had hit the guardrail on the eastbound side near Milepost 42. The man reportedly got out of his car and was struck by a pickup heading eastbound. Investigators do not know why or for how long he had been naked. One eastbound lane of I-90 at Milepost 42 was closed during the investigation.
  11. JERRY_SANCHEZ

    Lawsuit

    Seems like everyone is suing for anything.... Seattle suit filed for "lost time" over controversial best-seller By Peter Lewis Seattle Times staff reporter James Frey said he made up some details about his life in "A Million Little Pieces." The latest thump on the controversial best-seller "A Million Little Pieces" is a Seattle federal court lawsuit seeking damages on behalf of consumers for the "lost time" they spent reading the book. Marketed as a redemptive tale in the form of a drug and alcohol memoir, the book by James Frey had sold more than 2 million copies as of last week, according to The New York Times. But it has also drawn fire after an investigative Web site, The Smoking Gun, reported this month that it was full of exaggerations and inaccuracies. Frey subsequently said he made up some details about his life. TV talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, whose inclusion of the memoir in her book club led to a huge sales spike, stood by her endorsement, contending that "the underlying message of redemption ... still resonates with me." Doubleday, a division of Random House, the book's publisher, issued a statement promising to issue refunds to readers who purchased directly from the publisher. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Seattle Attorney Mike Myers lists as plaintiffs two Seattle residents, Shera Paglinawan and Stuart Oswald, who each received or purchased the book "before news of the book's falsity was disseminated." The suit, apparently the third of its kind to be filed across the nation, seeks class-action status against Frey and the publisher. Myers distinguished his suit from actions filed in Illinois and California by saying only his seeks compensation on behalf of consumers for "the lost value of the readers' time." Myers alleges several legal causes for the suit, including breach of contract, unjust enrichment, negligent misrepresentation, intentional misrepresentation and violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act. A Random House spokesman said Tuesday the publisher had not yet been served with a copy of the Seattle complaint and would have no comment. Meantime, a University of Washington law professor who reviewed the complaint said he thought its chances of success were "fairly slim." Sean O'Connor, who teaches intellectual property and corporate securities law, said it appears that the plaintiffs were trying to force a "legal apology. ... They want Frey and Random House to say, 'This was wrong what we did.' " O'Connor thought that angle "might get the most sympathy from a jury — if it gets in front of a jury." But the professor was generally dismissive of other claims. For example, he maintained that the "unjust enrichment" claim would have problems since the publisher is willing to make refunds and in light of the fact that some booksellers also apparently have offered to do likewise. O'Connor also foresaw difficulty calculating the "lost time" claim. He noted the value of time could differ widely among consumers, as well as the logistics of distinguishing between "slow versus fast readers." O'Connor said that in some ways he was sympathetic toward the Seattle lawsuit's claims. "But when you roll it into a legal action like this, it's hard to see what the remedy is coming out the other end."
  12. Skier dies at Stevens Pass 01:26 PM PST on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 KING5.com STEVENS PASS, Wash. - A skier was killed at the Stevens Pass ski resort after falling into a tree well. The man, who is from Kenmore, was in an out-of-bounds area Tuesday when he fell into the tree well. A friend dug him out, but he had stopped breathing, said Chelan County Sheriff Mike Harum. The ski patrol took him to a parking lot and managed to briefly revive him but he died en route to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Why tree wells are a hazard According to KING 5 meteorologist and skier, Jeff Renner, the hazard is called NARSID, or Non-Avalanche Related Snow Immersion Death. It happens when skiers or snowboarders fall (usually headfirst) into a deep snowbank or tree wells. So far this season, three skiers/snowboarders have died and an experienced ski patroller had a narrow escape. Skiers should stay well clear of tree wells. Two of the deaths were at Mount Baker, the third was at Alpental. Tree wells are cup-shaped depressions in the snow surrounding trees - the result of tree limbs catching and deflecting some of the falling snow. A fall near a well can easily result in a plunge into the well; even if the skier ends up going in feet first it can be very hard to extricate oneself. Still, the nature of such a fall is that victims often end up going in head first. Crystal Mountain Ski Patrol Director Paul Baugher says that a study of the accidents suggests some basic safety steps: Any skier or snowboarder who ventures off to the side of a groomed trail into softer snow or trees should ski or ride with a partner, and partners should keep each other in sight. Those who ski near trees should stay well clear of tree wells.
  13. Seattle's backyard ski area could grow by a third in the next several years, with more lifts, more terrain, three times more restaurant seating and better parking. Expansion proposed for the Summit at Snoqualmie, with its four adjacent ski areas, could accommodate a third more visitors and make it easier for skiers and snowboarders to traverse the resort, according to plans that have been endorsed by the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Before the changes could occur, however, the private ski area would have to buy 400 acres of wildlife-rich private timberland next door and donate it to the government to link the forests of the south Cascades with those to the north of Interstate 90. Some expansion plans "go through one of the largest and last remaining pieces of old-growth forest in that north-south corridor," said Sonny Paz, a wildlife biologist for the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie forest who reviewed the ski area's plans. "Over time, the land donation should mitigate the loss of the habitat that the ski area's trying to develop." The Forest Service has been evaluating expansion plans for the Summit, portions of which have served skiers since the early 1930s , for six years. The agency's draft review of those plans was released last week. But the proposal comes as scientists increasingly have been suggesting that the future of midelevation ski areas such as Snoqualmie Summit may hinge on the weather. A recent study by the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group indicated that even with an average temperature increase of just a few degrees, snow levels at Snoqualmie Pass would rise 500 feet. The group's computer models show that the length of an average ski season could decline 28 percent in the next 20 years. Those predictions aren't lost on the ski industry. "Certainly we're all sort of looking at issues that relate to global warming," said Tim Beck, executive vice president for planning for Booth Creek Resorts, which owns the Summit. "We all recognize there are things happening out there we have to be aware of." But Beck said those possibilities have not factored into planning at the Summit. "It's sort of like farming," Beck said. "Every year the weather is different. But I've been involved with the Summit for eight years, and most of the time we've had pretty good snow." For now, Summit managers want to better control the flow of people among the four areas — Summit West, Summit Central, Summit East and Alpental. They're proposing two new chairlifts through a heavily wooded section of the Central and East summits. They also want to connect the two areas with steeper cat trails so snowboarders, who tend to avoid traversing flat ground, can better access both summits. Because that section is thick with old-growth, the Forest Service has "urged them to reduce development to gladed runs, which are more difficult to groom, but leaves more trees standing," said Larry Donovan, who led the review for the Forest Service. No northern spotted owls — now protected under the Endangered Species Act — have been spotted in that area in years, but Paz said he still thinks the birds may hunt there. The resort already has made arrangements with Plum Creek Timber to buy and donate forestland near the resort to replace the loss of those trees if plans are approved, he said. The Summit also would consolidate facilities at the bases of the Central and West summits, offering an additional 10 acres of parking and 2,800 more restaurant seats, and making 140 more acres available for night skiing. The proposal also would add two more chairlifts to Alpental, allowing expert skiers to stay higher on the mountain. And it would open more terrain there to intermediate skiing. The public may comment on the proposal until mid-February.
  14. NORTH CASCADE HWY Elevation: 5477ft / 1669M Temperature:N/A Conditions & Weather: N. Cascades HWY will close at 3 PM 4 November for avalancche control through this weekend. // Snow Restrictions Eastbound: Temporarily closed Restrictions Westbound: Temporarily closed
  15. Wednesday, October 26, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM Carl Skoog, skiing enthusiast By Warren Cornwall Seattle Times staff reporter Carl Skoog, 46, was an important figure in Washington backcountry-skiing circles and in national ski photography. He died Oct. 17 in a fall while skiing down the side of a mountain in Argentina. Carl Skoog would drive to a cabin in the North Cascades late at night, and beat everybody out the next morning for the first tracks in new-fallen snow. He spent six days waiting out an Alaska snowstorm just to capture a breathtaking photo of a friend skiing down a mountainside, one of many professional shots that graced the covers of popular ski magazines. And the Redmond man pioneered routes across some of Washington's most imposing mountain ranges, going places on skis that most people wouldn't dare go in boots. Mr. Skoog's enthusiastic mountain exploits, which established him as an important figure both in Washington backcountry-skiing circles and in national ski photography, ended Oct. 17 when he died in a fall while skiing down the side of a mountain in Argentina. He was 46. "Backcountry skiing and mountaineering was what he did," said Adam Howard, editor of Backcountry Magazine, a Vermont-based publication on snowboarding and backcountry skiing that has used Mr. Skoog's photos nine times on its cover. "His stuff was authentic, and he was just where the action was. He was just doing it. He would have pursued the mountains with or without the camera with just as much vigor." Mr. Skoog was introduced to skiing in the Cascades at an early age. As the son of Richard Skoog, a ski jumper and early supporter of the Crystal Mountain ski program, he spent long days on the slopes. "We would stick a sandwich in one pocket and an apple in the other," Carl Skoog told Couloir, a backcountry-skiing and snowboarding magazine. "I don't think I saw the lodge until after I was a teenager, when I went in there to see what was going on after all the skiing was done." Later, he turned his attention to the backcountry, away from the crowds and the ski lifts. With his brother, Lowell Skoog, he established ski traverses of Washington's Picket, Chiwaukum and Bailey mountains. What first drew Mr. Skoog to backcountry skiing was that "it combines the sense of discovering the country with the joy of gliding through the country on skis," said Lowell Skoog. Mr. Skoog's photos of his excursions caught the eye of magazines and outdoor-gear companies, leading to his career as a professional ski photographer. Dean Collins of Bellingham, a frequent subject of Mr. Skoog's photos, recalled his backcountry comrade as a hardworking devotee of the sport, but an unassuming person who was unlikely to brag about his exploits. Collins went on three ski trips to Alaska with Mr. Skoog and spent countless days with him in the mountains. On one of the Alaska trips, they waited out the six-day snowstorm before making the ski run that produced the Backcountry cover photo. "Pretty much every waking moment that we aren't working and can go skiing, we've been together and shooting together," Collins said. Mr. Skoog died while skiing down 22,211-foot Cerro Mercedario, in the Andes Mountains of Argentina. He fell on a 42-degree slope of windblown, soft snow and couldn't stop himself, tumbling approximately 4,500 vertical feet and breaking his neck, said Rene Crawshaw, a Canadian who was with him at the time and spoke by telephone from Argentina. He was preceded in death by his father and is survived by his mother, Ingrid Skoog of Bellevue; brothers Lawrence of Seattle, Philip of Washington, D.C., Gordon of Redmond, and Lowell of Seattle; and sister Anita Skoog Neil of Bellevue. No memorial service has been scheduled.
  16. http://www.car-top-tent.com/ Has anyone ever use this? Just wondering if this is a silly item for car campers or a good way to spend the night at the trailhead....
  17. Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - Page updated at 12:06 PM Charge filed in connection with man who died having horse sex The Associated Press King County prosecutors have charged a man with trespassing in connection with an incident in which a friend was fatally injured having sex with a horse in Enumclaw. James Michael Tait, 54, of Enumclaw, is accused of entering a barn without the owner's permission. If convicted he faces up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine. Prosecutors filed the charge today in county district court. Arraignment is scheduled for the week of Oct. 31. Tait does not have a listed phone number and it was not clear if he had obtained a lawyer. Officers were told that Tait entered a neighbor's barn last July in Enumclaw along with the man who died to have sex with a horse, charging papers said. Tait was videotaping the episode when the man received internal injuries that led to his death. Officer were told that Tait, the man who died, and a third man sneaked into the barn repeatedly to have sex with horses, according to the documents. The third man was not charged with trespassing because investigators found no videotapes or other evidence that placed him in the barn on a specific date. The prosecutor's office says no animal cruelty charges were filed because there was no evidence of injury to the horses.
  18. JERRY_SANCHEZ

    How Rude

    Interesting article.... Do you think America is getting more rude such as talking loudly with cell phone use in public? Modern Americans: A rude, boorish lot? 01:25 PM PDT on Friday, October 14, 2005 Associated Press Tonya Mosley reports WASHINGTON, D.C. - Americans' fast-paced, high-tech existence has taken a toll on the civil in society. From road rage in the morning commute to high decibel cell-phone conversations that ruin dinner out, men and women behaving badly has become the hallmark of a hurry-up world. An increasing informality - flip-flops at the White House, even - combined with self-absorbed communication gadgets and a demand for instant gratification have strained common courtesies to the breaking point. "All of these things lead to a world with more stress, more chances for people to be rude to each other," said Peter Post, a descendent of etiquette expert Emily Post and an instructor on business manners through the Emily Post Institute in Burlington, Vt. In some cases, the harried single parent has replaced the traditional nuclear family and there's little time to teach the basics of polite living, let alone how to hold a knife and fork, according to Post. A slippage in manners is obvious to many Americans. Nearly 70 percent questioned in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll said people are ruder than they were 20 or 30 years ago. The trend is noticed in large and small places alike, although more urban people report bad manners, 74 percent, then do people in rural areas, 67 percent. Peggy Newfield, founder and president of Personal Best, said the generation that came of age in the times-a-changin' 1960s and 1970s are now parents who don't stress the importance of manners, such as opening a door for a female. So it was no surprise to Newfield that those children wouldn't understand how impolite it was to wear flip-flops to a White House meeting with the president - as some members of the Northwestern women's lacrosse team did in the summer. A whopping 93 percent in the AP-Ipsos poll faulted parents for failing to teach their children well. "Parents are very much to blame," said Newfield, whose Atlanta-based company started teaching etiquette to young people and now focuses on corporate employees. "And the media." Sulking athletes and boorish celebrities grab the headlines while television and Hollywood often glorify crude behavior. "It's not like the old shows 'Father Knows Best,'" said Norm Demers, 47, of Sutton, Mass. "People just copy it. How do you change it?" Demers would like to see more family friendly television but isn't holding his breath. Nearly everyone has a story of the rude or the crude, but fewer are willing to fess up to boorish behavior themselves. Only 13 percent in the poll would admit to making an obscene gesture while driving; only 8 percent said they had used their cell phones in a loud or annoying manner around others. But 37 percent in the survey of 1,001 adults questioned Aug. 22-23 said they had used a swear word in public. Yvette Sienkiewicz, 41, a claims adjustor from Wilmington, Del., recalled in frustration how a bigger boy cut in front of her 8-year-old son as he waited in line to play a game at the local Chuck E. Cheese. "It wasn't my thing to say something to the little boy," said Sienkiewicz, who remembered that the adult accompanying the child never acknowledged what he had done. In the AP-Ipsos poll, 38 percent said they have asked someone to stop behaving rudely. More and more, manners are taught less and less. Carole Krohn, 71, a retired school bus driver in Deer Park, Wash., said she has seen children's behavior deteriorate over the years, including one time when a boy tossed a snowball at the back of another driver's head. In this litigious society, she argued, a grown-up risks trouble correcting someone else's kid. One solution for bad behavior "is to put a kid off in the middle of the road. Nowadays all people want to do is sue, to say you're to blame, get you fired," Krohn said. Krohn, who often greeted students by name and with a hearty "good morning," once was asked by a child if she got tired of offering pleasantries. Sienkiewicz, whose job requires hours in a car, said she tries to avoid rush-hour traffic because of drivers with a me-first attitude. The most common complaint about rudeness in the poll was aggressive or reckless driving, with 91 percent citing it as the most frequent discourtesy. Margaret Hahn-Dupont, a 39-year-old law professor from Oradell, N.J., noticed that some of her students showed little respect for authority and felt free to express their discontent and demand better grades. Close on the heels of the baby boomers are the affluent teens and young adults who have known nothing but the conveniences of computers and cell phones, devices that take them away from face-to-face encounters and can be downright annoying in a crowd. "They got a lot of things and feel entitled to get a lot of things," said Hahn-Dupont. Bernard F. Scanlon, 79, of Sayville, N.Y., would like to see one railroad car set aside for cell phone users to ensure peace and quiet for the rest. Amtrak has taken a stab at that by banning cell phones and other loud devices in one car of some trains, especially on chatty Northeast and West Coast routes. But if those trains are sold out, the Quiet Car service is suspended and anything goes. How rude.
  19. Local News: Thursday, October 13, 2005 Fees are rising at state's national parks The Associated Press E-mail article Print view Search Most e-mailed Most read RSS TACOMA — Effective next year, drivers probably will have to pay $5 more to enter the Mount Rainier and Olympic national parks. Both parks Wednesday announced plans to raise their vehicle entrance fees from $10 to $15 for a seven-day pass. It would be the first entrance fee increase for both parks in nine years, when the fee went up from $5 to $10. The increases are expected to be approved by the National Park Service and the Secretary of the Interior. The soonest the new fees could go into effect is Jan. 1. Eighty percent of that revenue will remain at the respective parks, officials said. Mount Rainier National Park would receive an extra $500,000 to $600,000 each year through the increase. In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the park collected more than $2.37 million in fees, including entrance fees, park passes and campground revenues. The infusion of another $500,000 would allow the park to move sooner on projects such as reconstruction of the Narada Falls trail, redesigning camp sites along the Wonderland Trail to increase the number of spaces and rehabilitating the Westside Road. In addition to the vehicle fee increase, Mount Rainier officials are planning to raise the camping fee at White River Campground from $10 to $12 per night. At Olympic National Park, the per night camping fee also would rise $2. In another change, park entrance fees will be collected at Ozette in Olympic National Park. The day-use parking fee there will be eliminated. North Cascades National Park in northern Washington does not charge a vehicle entrance fee. An annual park pass to Mount Rainier or Olympic costs $30.
  20. I got this quote from King5 news so not sure why they said triple the fee which it should have said increase by half. I suppose it was meant triple the amount few years ago when it was just $5
  21. Car entrance fees to triple at Mount Rainier 03:17 PM PDT on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 Associated Press SEATTLE -- Mount Rainier National Park plans to increase the entrance fee for vehicles next year by five dollars to 15 dollars. The park says it would be the first increase in the vehicle entrance fee in nine years. It says 80 percent of the fees improve facilities and services in the park, such as campgrounds, trails and visitor exhibits.
  22. Everest avalanche injures U.S. and Canadian climbers, Sherpa guides By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA The Associated Press E-mail article Print view Search Most e-mailed Most read RSS KATMANDU, Nepal — Four American and Canadian climbers and two Sherpa guides were injured in an avalanche on Mount Everest and were being treated Friday in a makeshift tent hospital as treacherous weather kept them from being evacuated. Thursday's avalanche swept through the first of four camps set up between Everest's base camp and its 29,035-foot summit, days after an American and a Canadian climber died in separate incidents on the mountain. The six climbers, including two Americans, two Canadians and two Nepalese Sherpa guides, received injuries ranging from bruises to a possible broken back, reports from the mountain said. The Americans were identified as James Fadrick Bach and Jason John Barilla and the Canadians were John Dahu Gauthier and Pierre Bourdeau, according to the Parvir Trekking agency which outfitted the mountaineers. Hometowns were not immediately available. They were being treated at a hospital run by the Himalayan Rescue Association in a tent at the base camp, at an elevation of 17,400 feet. Bourdeau said on his Web site that the avalanche hit about 5:30 a.m. Information Everest expeditions: www.everestnews.com/ (click on "Today's news") "I was awakened by the sound of thunder from very high above me on the west shoulder of Everest, probably from near the top of the shoulder. Then, I felt the ground beneath me shaking and rumbling as if we were in an earthquake," he wrote. He said they reached the hospital tent after a four-trek down from the first camp, where flattened orange tents and climbing equipment were scattered on the snow. Other photos showed a bearded Barilla wearing a smashed white helmet, his face covered with scrapes and bruises, and a sherpa who apparently had to be carried down in a stretcher. Climbers estimated about 40 tents were destroyed by the avalanche, which buried food, supplies and oxygen supplies. There are no roads to the base camp and the only ways out are to hike for a week to the nearest airstrip or by helicopter. Rescuers will try again Saturday to evacuate the injured climbers, a mountaineering official said Friday. "Continuing bad weather prevented helicopters from reaching the Everest region. Rescuers waited all day to bring them back to Katmandu," said Purna Bhakta Tandulkar, chief of Mountaineering Department in Katmandu. In the past few days, strong winds and snowfall have slowed climbers on the mountain and created treacherous conditions. The weather is expected to worsen this weekend, with the wind picking up speed, forecasters said. Twenty-three expeditions were attempting to scale the peak this spring, but the climbers have yet to reach the final, most difficult section on Everest, known as the "death zone." Michael O'Brien, 39, of Seattle fell to his death on Sunday as he and his brother Chris, 32, were returning to their base camp and were crossing the Khumbu Icefall, a dreaded section of the route that has claimed the lives of many climbers. Canadian Sean Egan, 63, died on April 29 after an apparent heart attack on Everest's slopes. Since New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first conquered Everest on May 29, 1953, more than 1,400 people have scaled the mountain. About 180 have died on its unpredictable slopes.
  23. Interesting article. What do you guys think of this? Thursday, April 21, 2005 Mount Rainier guide services to be put out for bid RMI's near monopoly to be broken By MIKE LEWIS SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER A slimmed-down version of the free market completed its ascent to the top of Washington's highest mountain yesterday when National Park Service officials announced that for the first time they will open bidding on Mount Rainier's valuable guide contracts. The decision, which has been debated for several years, will remove Rainier Mountaineering Inc.'s near-monopoly on guide services to the 14,411-foot summit and instead divide the contracts, called concessions, largely among three winning bidders. As a nod to RMI's long history on the mountain and its investment there, park officials confirmed that Ashford-based RMI is the presumptive favorite for the largest of the three contracts. Mount Rainier National Park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga said the decision grants RMI a good chance at a well-earned share of the concession while not freezing out other highly qualified guide services for the 2006 climbing season. "The public process really worked here," said Uberuaga, who has worked in the park for 20 years. "They said they wanted competition among the guiding services. That's what we are going to have." Peter Whittaker, whose father co-founded RMI, said that while he wasn't thrilled with the decision, he's happy to know what's in store for his business. "Nobody's happy when your business gets downsized, but overall we're OK with the plan," he said. "I think we're also relieved that this process is moving into the future." Park Service officials said they received more than 1,900 comments on the plan, most in favor of ending RMI's exclusive deal. Washington guides, some of whom had long groused about RMI's exclusive concession, were thrilled about the change. "It's going to be really good for the public. They are going to have choices," said Dunham Gooding, president of Bellingham-based American Alpine Institute. "Some people have really enjoyed RMI and others have not. Now people interested in a different style of guiding will have a chance to benefit from other styles." The changes, which won't be implemented until next year, will structure climbing concessions on Rainier like those on Alaska's Mount McKinley, where five guide services hold concessions. Under the Rainier plan, three selected concessionaires would split up the most popular paths to the peak: the Muir, Emmons and Kautz routes. The plan limits the number of guided trips to the top to approximately 6,000 guides and clients annually. One company, likely RMI, would get rights to about half of those. The other two would split the remaining 50 percent. Other, smaller operators would receive permits on other routes. The plan also seeks to push more climbs to less trafficked weekdays and earlier in the June-through-August climbing season. RMI has operated guide services on the mountain since 1968. Privately, the owners of competing guide services have said that RMI didn't provide good service for all of its clients because it had little competition on the mountain. Whittaker has said that it would be much easier for the park service to police one company than a handful of them. About 10,000 people set out for the summit annually, with about half making it. Currently, RMI, the nation's largest guide service, provides the vast bulk of the guiding to the top. The plan isn't supposed to increase the number of climbers overall, park service officials said. Whittaker said he likely will lay off some guides. However, owners of other guide services said they would hire more guides if they scored one of the contracts. Gooding said if his company became one of the big three, his business would expand from 36 Rainier clients annually to a maximum of 12 each day of the climbing season. "It's an enormous jump," he said. Critics of the plan have suggested that its vague language regulating bids would allow one company to secure multiple concessions, rendering the open competition largely useless. Uberuaga said no one company will have more than one contract within the overall concession. "The point is for the public to have a choice," he said. With many of the nation's top guiding services based in the Puget Sound region, park officials expect no shortage of applicants. Guide George Dunn, who is believed to have reached the top of Mount Rainier more times (477) than anyone else, said having a contract to guide clients on Washington's most famous natural icon is a lure for every local guide. He's planning to make a bid through the guide service he partly owns, International Mountain Guides. "It's where we live and where we grew up. It's where we come back to after we guide in other countries. It's what we love most. Every mountaineer here looks to it as their home peak." P-I reporter Mike Lewis can be reached at 206-448-8140 or mikelewis@seattlepi.com
  24. Hello everyone I lost one of my randonee boot on the way down from Eldorado Peak this past Sunday. If you happend to find it please email me. I think it fell off when I was just past the boulder field just before entering the forest. Thanks!
  25. Interesting Article.... Skiers Risk Answering the Call of Their Wild Side By KIRK JOHNSON Published: January 19, 2005 ARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 18 - The solo skier or snowboarder cutting virgin tracks through the deep powder on a steep mountain slope has become a signature and symbol of the Western tourism industry - heady with its mixture of freedom, beauty and rugged individualism. But that seductive image may be encouraging more and more people - many without much experience or training - to venture beyond the relative safety of the big resorts, risking harm to themselves and others, skiers and backcountry experts say. Seven people have died in backcountry avalanches in Utah alone since the season started, more deaths than there have been in any other year since 1950. "They built the lifts and they pushed the powder," said Bob Athey, a backcountry veteran who was preparing Tuesday morning, as he does just about every day, to ski by himself into the woods near the Alta Ski Resort. "But then you have more skiers, which dampens down the powder, and that means the people who do want it have to go out of bounds to get it." In the past few years, the ski industry has responded to a hunger for untrammeled terrain. Alpine touring, which allows a skier to hike like a cross-country skier, or lock the boot down for traditional downhill skiing, has become one of the fastest-growing categories in winter sports, industry officials say. Traditional ski makers like Atomic have expanded into the new market, and boot makers that once served only mountain climbers have retooled as well. The American Alpine Institute, a climbing school and guide service in Bellingham, Wash., estimates that off-road skiing, as it might be called, is growing three to five times faster than the traditional downhill sport. But there is a deep culture clash at the heart of this new phenomenon. Many people who identify themselves as backcountry skiers - knowledgeable about the risks, trained in survival skills and never without an electronic homing device to help people find them if they are buried by snow - look with barely concealed disdain at what they call the "out of bounds" skier, who simply rides the chairlift up, disregards the warning signs and ducks under the rope. The 27-year-old man who died here Friday, Shane Maixner, found still on his snowboard under four feet of snow near the Canyons Resort, was an out-of-bounder who apparently reached the place of his death through a gate on the resort boundary marked with a prominent skull and crossbones. The gate, which leads onto public land, is unlocked and unguarded, and its location is clearly marked on resort maps. Mr. Maixner was not carrying any of the recommended backcountry survival gear. "You can't sugarcoat it or people will never learn," said Patrick Ormond, a mountain guide who lives here in Park City. "Once you cross that gate, if you're unprepared, you cross the line from ignorance to recklessness." But other backcountry skiers, dyed deep with the free-will ethic that imbues their sport, say that individual decisions and their consequences are all that matter. Life is a calculated risk, they say, and an out-of-bounds skier, however unprepared, has made a choice. That fact must be respected, they say. "They got killed doing something they like," said Charlie Sturgis, a ski tour guide who manages an outdoor outfitting store here called White Pine Touring, referring to the recent skier deaths. "That beats hanging out the front of a windshield." Other backcountry skiers are simply angry. Access into national forests and other public land is already tighter than ever, they say, as private property and resort development have encircled mountain areas in the West. Reckless people, they say, give careful people a bad name - and create an excuse for landowners who might want to close roads or trails. "Besides putting rescuers in danger, our access could be hurt," said Brent Sherry, a college student in Salt Lake City who skis both the backcountry and the resorts. "I think that could be a real issue." Avalanche experts say that the recipe for a snowslide is simple: different storms deposit different layers on a mountain, some with wetter snow and some with drier powder, and the terrain is safe only when the layers bond, like a layer cake, usually with a few days of warm sun. Experienced skiers say they venture out only after digging a snow trench to see how well the pack has congealed. And any slope steeper than 30 degrees is double prone to slide, they say. Dutch Draw, where the slide occurred last Friday outside the Canyons Resort, has a slope of 37 degrees to 38 degrees. Other skiers say it is not about the snow or the slope, but about decision making. Some people have a hard time backing away, or backing down, even if they are able to read the dangers. It is a problem that men, in particular, are apparently prone to. Of the 629 people killed in the United States by avalanches since 1950 whose sex was determined, only about one in 10 were women, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center in Boulder. "Ninety-nine percent of the problem is testosterone poisoning," said Larry Guild, a skier from Amherst, Mass., who was on vacation in Utah and preparing on Tuesday to depart for Utah's backcountry for the first time. Mr. Guild said he was going with a guide and would not have it any other way. "There's no way I'd go up there by myself," he said, nodding his head to the mountains towering above the road where his group had parked. Other people said that intuition was what could save a person in the wild and that there was only one way to get it - through years of experience. Sex does not matter, they say. "My husband has tried to develop a sixth sense about avalanches, and I usually defer to him," said Julie Cooke, who lives in Alta and was walking Tuesday morning past the backcountry access trailhead near her home. Ms. Cooke, who said her husband had been skiing the backcountry for 30 years, has not felt right going out since the last big wave of storms and said she would probably just wait a bit longer still, until she and her husband were sure. With their grooming equipment and ever-present ski patrols, mountain resorts project an aura of safety that can obscure the risks beyond the borders of a flimsy fence, some skiers say, especially when the snow might look, to the untrained eye, about the same on either side. Others say that in the blur of warnings and precautions that modern society requires on so many things it is easier than ever to dismiss an avalanche danger sign as the work of lawyers or fussy government monitors, however dire the language. "There's a lot of stuff that can get you killed, but when you're in a ski resort, you don't have that expectation," said Mr. Sturgis, the tour guide and store manager. Referring to the backcountry access point near the summit at Canyons Resort, he added that he thought that most of the people who went past the gate believed they were merely extending the resort experience. Police officials say there is also the question of how to enforce the rules. The Summit County sheriff, Dave Edmunds, whose jurisdiction includes the Park City resorts, said that leaving a resort to ski onto someone's private property, for example, was an easy one - that is trespassing. But public lands outside a resort, like the Dutch Draw area where the big slide hit last week, are far trickier. The public has a right to be there, Sheriff Edmunds said, unless individuals have violated some other law along the way. "If you're an adult and you want to go and risk your life, it's your business," he said. "We just have to clean up the mess."
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