sobo

Construction? Petroleum exploration? I'm still Oh, and

Yup, I are.

Excellent!!! While mine didn't make "the cut", it's pasted below for your collective perusal. Volunteers Perform Mountain Rescues Upon reading Keith Leeman’s unsubstantiated diatribe regarding his mistaken belief that the state’s taxpayers subsidize the cost of rescues in Washington’s mountains, I was moved to respond. What Mr. Leeman doesn’t know, nor desire to find out, is that those people performing mountain rescues are unpaid volunteers who have experience in mountaineering and rock climbing, medicine, technical rigging systems, and a desire to help others. Search and Rescue (SAR) and Mountain Rescue (MR) operations are conducted under the auspices of the county sheriff’s office. The only paid staff at the sheriff’s office involved in SAR/MR is the deputy who acts as the SAR/MR liaison, and he also has many other functions for which he is paid anyway. In contrast, Mountain Rescue units are non-profit 501c(3) corporations, and our group equipment is purchased through funds raised by donations, fundraising efforts, and grant programs from corporate benefactors. The people actually performing the rescues are all unpaid volunteers, many of whom have taken personal time off from their real jobs to conduct these rescues. All of their equipment is personally purchased and owned, and they all invest large sums of time and money to remain trained, fit, and ready to respond to an emergency, at no cost to the American taxpayer. For Mr. Leeman to state that he is “…sick of picking up the tab for the dangerous and irresponsible choices of others” is simply ludicrous, as he is not spending one nickel of his own money for any of it. Lest you wonder about the cost of aerial operations, the helicopters used in rescues are owned and operated by the U.S. military and/or the National Guard, and are paid for by all Americans through their federal taxes. The pilots, crew chiefs, and medics are paid the same whether or not they are involved in a rescue, and they treat rescue operations as a training opportunity. It is “all in a day’s work” for them. Same goes for the Mt. Rainier National Park climbing rangers. If Mr. Leeman remains adamant about charging people for the “cost” of their rescues, perhaps he should be targeting hikers, skiers, boaters, hunters, snowmobilers, and Alzheimer patients, as the statistics will show that these groups have a larger incidence of requiring rescue than do mountaineers and rock climbers. But the public is unaware of this fact, because these types of rescues don’t garner the sensationalistic media coverage that a mountain rescue does. The information is out there; I suggest to Mr. Leeman that he go find it. Paul E. Soboleski, President Central Washington Mountain Rescue Yakima, WA

Googled: "Dru" and the 3rd and 4th links, respectively, are: some acupuncture graduate university in LA and some woodstove manufacturer in the Netherlands I am no closer to the answer which I seek. Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope. Where's Yoda (olyclimber) when you need that little toad...?

See? Just like I was saying.

Which goes back to the statement I made in my last post ^^. Even after debunking, the public has a short memory. BTW,

yes... incidentally, here is the card representing you. won't specialed get mad with you for riding around naked on his goat like that? Aw right, I just went through all 78 images of tarot cards on some site and never saw this one. He certainly doesn't look like any knight of Pentacles that I saw. What the hell is a "bopkn" anyway?

yeah yeah, right... So is it really tarot card reading? Knight of Pentacles... is that what that says? It's hard to read on my screen. Doesn't look much like a knight, at least not like the other KoP images I googled up... This card is a symbol of care, diligence, and responsibility in the world.

howz about a fahqn hint, huh? I'm a civil engineer, not a software engineer. I build design and build shit, and it's not computers. Jeezus! and before you say it, yes, I'm getting less and less civil...

I guess I'm just a techno-idiot. I'm no closer to the answer, and I didn't even find anything remotely close to Canad,a...

DAMN YOU KNELSON! edited to remove Fortune-telling

You do tarot readings?

Point taken. Ya know, you'd think that there'd be a way for the AAC or the AF or the MRA to get this info out to the press and the general public so that when tools like Mr. Leeman crop up, he can be sprayed like a weed and made to go back into his hole. I guess if these groups have already done that, then the public truly does have a short (and selective) memory.

and that's the ONLY kind of dating he'll be doing didn't realize I set myself up for that one. Hey Dru, do us a favor and tell us all WTF you do for a living that allows you to post so damn much and so fast all over this BB, eh?

And carbon-dating the slings so he knows when to replace them.

Heyyyyyyy, how'd ya know? And arranging all the biners on a gear sling so the gates all face the same way...

Au contraire, Fat Kid.

You forgot ice climbers... (this ought to be good)

Thought you got it from the Ethel Merman cover of the Axis: Bold As Love album. Yah, that's what I thought, too. But I was thinking that Edith Piaf did that cover.

robert, Not to "throw this back in your face" or anything like that, but the event that caused Mr. Leeman to complain about the recent multitude of rescues occurred on Mt. Rainier (although he casually mentions other local mountains, yes), not in the NCNP (inferred from his letter to the editor and the timing of the publishing of that letter). But the fact remains, and the statistics prove, that mountain/rock climbers require far fewer rescues than other perceived "low-risk" groups. What seems to irk the general public is that a mountain rescue becomes a high-profile media event, and people are under the mistaken impression that they are subsidizing the rescue cost. What they don't understand is that there are skads of other low-profile missions going on every day that they and the media never hear about (or at least, don't cover) which end up costing more overall than mountain rescues.

And Dru's age estimate gets bumped at least 30 years for this little ditty over here at the bottom of the page.

Well, not entirely true, but it is really rare. Why, just this past July 4 holiday weekend there was a call-out for a lost hiker on the PCT between White Pass and Chinook Pass. Husband/wife team did a car shuttle and then each started at opposite ends with the intent to meet in the middle and go back out the same day. Husband made it to Chinook that same evening, wife didn't make it to White. Husband took car to White River ranger station that night and alerted the NPS rangers. NPS fielded a hasty team by midnight to the PCT (which is outside the Park). Due to the NPS's obvious obligations to the Park (and over a busy holiday weekend), they had to go back early the next morning, but by then YSAR had called us out. We found her Saturday morning after her second night out, alive and a bit hungry. Somehow she ended up getting off the PCT and onto the American Ridge Trail. Point is, sometimes the NPS will respond outside the Park if they can spare the folks, although it is uncommon. Gator probably has some statistics that would indicate when the last time that happened. BTW all, I got an auto-email from the P-I saying they got my letter. It says that LTEs are limited to 200 words, so if mine shows up, it will have been edited by at least 50 percent.

goddamn, Mike, you've had a busy few days, haven't you? Good luck, and I hope that it works out OK for all involved.

CA has a law that went into effect this year, but the standard for getting nicked is that you would have had to intentionally and willfully entered an area that you knew was closed to the public. Max fine is $12k. They may have had an earlier law that has been superceded... BTW, you're welcome.

psssssst: click on the "print" icon, but do it at work, where the paper's cheaper...