Marking your location with a "Y" ???

[Kevin_Matlock]

Question obviously gleaned from the hood resuce thread. Didn't want to add to the multitude of posts nor wade through all the pages.

Hell, also figured this belonged in the noods forum since it's such a basic question!

 

Anyway.... mark your location with a Y indicating "yes, we're here"????? Feel kinda dumb, but since when? Guess I always understood to mark a "T" with the vertical line indicating wind direction (for aircraft).

 

Am I the only one thinking this?

[jmace]

its called an equalized anchor, this one was in the snow...the media is so far out of their element its the best they could come up with...

 

 

[Lambone]

I don't think anybody realized it was an anchor until the picture was posted.

[jmace]

They called it a Y with the picture and continue to do so..

 

[Dr_Flush_Amazing]

its called an equalized anchor, this one was in the snow...the media is so far out of their element its the best they could come up with...

 

 

I don't think its equalized. I think it's a slung boulder.

 

The whole "Y" = "Yes, we are here" is ridiculous. Some anonymous person in the Hood Fiasco thread said that "Y" is a USGS map symbol for a cave. I looked into that, but was unable to confirm that. If true, that would be an interesting factoid and a neat coincidence, but the "Y" in this case was clearly an anchor meant to secure them in the cave or on the slope, and was not meant to designate a particular letter.

[jmace]

have you seen the picture DFA...?,

[ericb]

I have...buried in the mt hood thread.....looks to me like they looped the rope over a rock horn

[Dr_Flush_Amazing]

have you seen the picture DFA...?,

 

Yes I have. It's very obviously a slung boulder/horn. You could see the rope running around the back of it.

[Bigtree]

..."Y" is a USGS map symbol for a cave...

 

Yup, its a std USGS symbol as per: http://erg.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/booklets/symbols/; however, I have a hard time imagining those fellows rigging up anything but a short-term anchor under the circumstances they were likely faced with.

[jmace]

maybe different pics then, pretty weird if it was an obvious slung rock to go ahead and deduce it was a Y indicating a position.

 

Any ways, as per the original question, no you dont use the letter Y to indicate Yes im here

[tbunch]

"Y" is ground to air for "Yes". The "I am here" part is to the best of my knowledge merely implicit. What could you mean by indicating "Yes" if you were somewhere else?

 

I wanted to correct something I read in the Mt. Hood thread. Someone wrote that and arrow "->" means "I'm going that away". That's correct. They said a variant meaning the same thing was like "K" (or "|<" if that's more clear). That's not correct. "K" means "you tell me which way to go" and implies that you're capable of travel. "X" means you can't proceed. It's probably worth carrying around a quick reference in your wallet.

[Dr_Flush_Amazing]

A more-readable version of the link that BigTree posted

 

The USGS map symbol for cave is a "Y" rotated 90 degrees clockwise.

 

Link to emergency ground-to-air symbology

 

This stuff is all irrelevant of course, since the "Y" in this case was an anchored rope, but interesting nonetheless.

 

 

Anybody been able to find the pic of the anchor in the Hood thread or on the Oregonian website?

 

 

 

 

[iain]

I just saw that photo someone put in the photo gallery. If that's what you're talking about, it's almost certainly the old wire that held up the summit shack that used to be up there before it was destroyed. You encounter these wires when topping out on the n. face in certain areas.

[Dr_Flush_Amazing]

[jmace]

Yup, although the one I saw had the rocks cropped out.

 

 

[dan_forester]

It's probably worth carrying around a quick reference in your wallet.

 

that seems about as useful as a portuguese pocket dictionary, but what the heck, might as well throw it in there with the other 85 essentials.

[tbunch]

That version is rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise by someone in a effort to explore which way might be "up". I think the concensus from looking at the shadows and such was that up is left and down is right, as posted here. That doesn't look like a permanent anchor to me. But... that's another thread entirely.

[Couloir]

Yeah, it's something all climbers do to say, "yes, we're in here."

I heard it directly from the mouth of the Hood River Police Detective during the news conference yesterday. And he said it with such confidence too!

[Dr_Flush_Amazing]

Yeah, it's something all climbers do to say, "yes, we're in here."

I heard it directly from the mouth of the Hood River Police Detective during the news conference yesterday. And he said it with such confidence too!

 

Yeah, I was told about that "Y" symbol when I got my climbing license. Weren't you?

[meanoldmanmike]

Flush we will hold you responsible when Chuck Schumer announces new Federal licensing requitrements for all climbers tomorrow, a new Federal Climbing Czar and a big contract with Garmin for required GPS encoding transpoders that weight 10 lbs...

 

Nothing can beat the headline in our local paper this AM "Mountain Climbing Fraught with Danger" complete with quotes from some guy who once visited Rainer.

[JohnGo]

Here's two shots of the old Mt Hood summit cabin.

 

It's on the Mazamas site, under Resources, Photo Gallery, Historical Images.

 

http://www.mazamas.org/your/adventure/photo/127/

http://www.mazamas.org/your/adventure/photo/128/

 

If you climb Hood in late season (ie summer), with minimal snow on top, you'll see a rather amazing collection old cabin debris on the summit. With the crazy winds recently, the snow likely was scoured off to expose it - rare in the winter.

[bwrts]

The USGS map symbol for cave is a "Y" rotated 90 degrees clockwise.

 

 

Actually the "Y" symbol is placed on the map with the tip pointing in the direction of the entrance to the mine tunnel, adit or cave entrance. FYI