Rudest damned thing ever

[billcoe]

We're at City of Rocks, just got back to the campsite after climbing that day and then rustling up a dinner at the steakhouse in Alba. We're feeling pretty damned fine and satiated between the superb climbing, weather and companionship. 2 kids come wandering over to our site @6pm with strange looks on their faces......which elicits a "Dudes, we sent the checks in already" response from me as a joke.

 

They sadly ask "Did you guys see anyone in our campsite today"? (we're 2 campsites away)

 

"Uhh, No, we've been gone most of the day....why?"

 

"We went out climbing today, and when we get back all of our stuff has been stolen."

 

Someone had evidently driven up, tossed their tent and everything in it into a vehicle and booked. These kids looked to have expensive shit (my son had made note of their tent, maybe a Hildenberg), more expensive than I roll, and every damned piece was gone (except the Patagonia clothes on their backs and their gear). Tent, sleeping bags, cooking stuff. I don't know what all else. Everything that they didn't have with them on their person. I figure they'll need a place to stay which is going to be tough as we don't have extra, but I ask, where are you staying tonight, can we help? They said they were just going to drive home as they were from Haley, Id.

After they left, turns out that my son and his buddy had left their keys and wallets in our tent all day. Something that didn't happen again.

 

It snowed that next AM, so they didn't miss any climbing. Still, it might not be the rudest damned thing ever, but stealing some kids expensive stuff and ruining their climbing trip rates pretty high on the list.

[keenwesh]

that's lame, did you get their names or maybe a handle here on CC? I'd toss a couple bucks that way depending on their financial situation...

[Water]

real sad mostly, what a shit.

While I never seriously worry, unfortunately in this day and age the thought crosses my mind whenever I leave a camp setup and go off for the day, unless camped high on the flanks of a volcano. My renters insurance actually covers this assuming a certain value is met (think it is $300 or $500..)

 

 

[Pete_H]

That's not rude, that's theft. Apparently they have meth heads in Mormon country too.

[G-spotter]

Happened to me at Skull Hollow once, except that instead of gone for good, all our gear was in our taken-down tent and stashed behind a boulder 500m up the road heading up into the hills behind the campground, which we accidentally discovered while wandering around looking for a sheltered place to bivi with no tents or sleeping bags that night!

 

Still don't know if this was supposed to be a prank or a theft.

[genepires]

A long time ago, my food box (action packer) was stolen from the city of rocks. Rangers said that it was probably mistaken for a cooler which local kids like to nab for the chance to drink "hard" beer. Never gave serious theft a thought at the city though. times do change.

[Coldfinger]

You camped in the pay sites or the USFS land (us)?

 

We left camp untended ourselves.

[billcoe]

Stayed in COR site#...hmmmm, forget. Right by Elephant Rock.

 

ps, didn't get their names...probably the only 2 climbers from Haley Idaho though.

[pink]

got an entire rack swiped from the base of beacon rock, i got some shit stolen from me when i lived in the NW. hopefully the tweeker population has dwindled

[selkirk]

hopefully the tweeker population has dwindled

 

[Riley81]

Just last summer I had a couple of snohomish county sheriffs stop me on the road out to 3 o'clcok rock to warn of car prowlers along the Mt. Loop Highway. They had left notes on all the cars at the trailhead grading how people left their cars in relation to the possibiltiy of a prowler wanting to break in. Nice to see the patrol but a bit disconcerting at the same time.

[DPS]

My vehicle was a plain Chevy pick up truck. I had a sturdy diamond plate aluminum tool box with sold steel locks. It was large enough to put my approach skis in as well as all of my and my partners gear in. I had no stickers at all. To me, sticker from gear manufacturers serve as advertisements to thieves as to what they might find inside. Political stickers just might make someone angry enough to vandalize my truck. Everything went into the locked tool box and I never had a theft. When I car camped, I used a cheap tent and sleeping bags so if they got nicked it was not too big a deal.

Edited April 11, 2012 by DPS

[Coldfinger]

got an entire rack swiped from the base of beacon rock, i got some shit stolen from me when i lived in the NW. hopefully the tweeker population has dwindled

 

Well they are toothless at least.

[sprocket]

got an entire rack swiped from the base of beacon rock, i got some shit stolen from me when i lived in the NW. hopefully the tweeker population has dwindled

 

Not totally wishful thinking, saw a Frontline special about Oregon making pseudoephedrine prescription only, apparently reduced the meth problem (and prison population) very significantly. Of course the pharmaceutical companies are fighting to get the law over turned locally and nationally.

[sprocket]

Sucks that these guys got their stuff taken.

 

I'm always worried leaving my car at a trailhead or gear in my tent when camping.

 

Been lucky for the most part although we had a full cooler lifted from our campground on a family outing early in the 70's at a state park in eastern Washington. Sheriff blamed it on migrant farm workers. Possible but unlikely, never saw any while camping at this same place for several years. More likely local kids looking for beer.

[gruntpltleader]

Not totally wishful thinking, saw a Frontline special about Oregon making pseudoephedrine prescription only, apparently reduced the meth problem (and prison population) very significantly. Of course the pharmaceutical companies are fighting to get the law over turned locally and nationally.

 

 

Check your data. Crime has been decreasing, but has been since mid 90's. Since measure 11 and 57, incarceration has been climbing. The crime drop and the incarceration rate are not linked variables. The timing doesn't quite work out.

 

taking pseudo-ephedrine off the shelves did however, make it damn hard to be more comfortable with a head cold.

 

check out the scandal with the oregonion and it's special meth report. once again, we have to be careful on how we consume mass media.

 

Edited April 13, 2012 by gruntpltleader

[rob]

taking pseudo-ephedrine off the shelves did however, make it damn hard to be more comfortable with a head cold.

 

 

Just order it on the internet. Regular ephedrine, too (yes, ephedrine is still legal OTC, just not as a diet aid).

 

Luckily, you can still buy pseudo-ephedrine OTC in Washington without resorting to mail-order, because that shit is the tits for a head cold.

[keenwesh]

Luckily, you can still buy pseudo-ephedrine OTC in Washington without resorting to mail-order, because that shit is the tits for a head cold.

 

it's also the tits fer yer basement methlab... Will I be put on a list and my dorm room raided if I order 2 grand worth of the stuff?

[layton]

two words: renters insurance. climbers are foolish not to have it unless they are homeowners, then they are covered.

[olive]

That sucks so badly. I camped at COR so many times and never heard of theft; I never worried about it. Now I am going to worry

[Coldfinger]

There were some pretty high winds, so in the back of my mind I'm thinking it may well have blown away; have seen that happen many a time (including a tent in the middle of Titcomb Lake).

[billcoe]

LOL, I guess that's possible as it was damned windy that day and getting windier by the hour. By 3 PM we got tired of being beat up and we were stopping climbing and calling it a day after we rapped. Rapping off Elephant rock I encountered the worst knot in a rap line I've seen in my 38 years climbing. I had both of the ends tied to me, but made the mistake of kicking off the middle, which took off like a shot going sideways towards the first flake it saw...Rye Crisp? Wheat thin? Some damned flake. It pulled out OK but by the time I'd gotten down to it, the 2 ropes looked like they had been on fast in the washing machine and were a giant pretzel puzzle knot with the 2 ropes commingling. Took @20 min to untangle them hanging in space. Dudes above had coats but were cold waiting for me to stop f*ing off and get it done. After that we decided to head into the steakhouse to get some dinner and some peace from the wind. By the time we'd gotten back the winds had abated and the neighbors headed over to see where that tent was.

 

I once chased a dome tent well over a mile that thought it was a balloon. (Illumination rock to significantly well below Timberline on the Reid Glacier.) I'd dropped my load and had gone back down to help up the last struggling climber in our group and was carrying his load for him. Feeling a tad weary and carrying his weight, my head wasn't held very high and we were still a ways down from the saddle: but I thought I glimpsed something...but no...it couldn't be. Get to the saddle and the story was that Bob Morris was telling this tale of a guy named George: who, once years back, had been setting up a dome tent when a puff of wind had taken it right off. POOF right as he gets to the end of the tale, the wind lifted the tent they were setting up like it was Dorothy and the Wizard, well over 50 vertical feet up and then it took off. That was the last they saw of it. Till I got up there to the saddle, saw that none of them had any interest in going all that way, asked them what they were going to do and they all say, leaf it be, the tent was gone for good, so I hiked down there, eventually found it, and drug it back up.

 

Damned was I tired that day.

[Coldfinger]

I'm just suspicious of wind from two things in your first report: "kids" and "patagucchi everything" gear.

 

Combine that with what I saw myself.......

 

Just about froze on Castle Rock on Friday, had a long and fucking cold belay (and yes I was dressed for alpine conditions).

[Coldfinger]

I'd add I saw a similar sounding kid from Boulder, let's call him Wade, who arrived in Hueco, ignored my warning he'd better anchor his new VE-25 full of goodies down better, and found a few bits of it on a barbed wire fence ten miles away....

 

My dog had the good sense to pee on his camp kitchen and girlfriend to boot.

[billcoe]

Woof