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Show MOAB, UTAH WEATHER FORECAST Thursda- Warm fall fails to lure visitors :q; y- Sunny High 64 Low 36 As reported in national media, -- W- Eriday, Sunny High 65 Low 33 Saturday, Partly Cloudy High 64 Low 32 Sunday, ' Sunny High 59 Low 31 GCHS basketbai coach Ryan Nielson (center) has poised his team for a promising season through vigorous workouts and support. Photos by Paul J. Mans i at the airport Great Lakes Aviation is hosting an open house at Canyonlands Field this Saturday The airline will be offering refreshments, prizes and tours. A5 Lii Abner GCHS presents a delightfulpresentation of LiT Abner this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. The Sadie Hawkins dance is Saturday, 8 p.m. A local manufactured home has won awards listings, games, puzzles and horoscope. Inside this newspaper! Moabs love for tennis The community's tennis players and spectators enjoyed a day of tennis last Saturday. Play continues this Saturday at 8 a.m. at the GCHS courts. New tools The Grand County Hospital District is upbeat on its mineral lease funding for new B8 WEATHER HISTORY Preen 77 49 66 Nov. 9 67 33 68 36 70 37 70 35 69 36 Nov. 10 Nov. 11 Nov. 12 Nov. 13 Times-lndepende- nt y Quietly, largely unnoticed, a sports few years in been built over last the has program Moab. And this winter it will offer Moabites the best value per entertainment dollar spent, bar none. We are speaking of course about the mens Red Devil basketball Continued on Tage A3 ----- ...in Hanksville A2 by Franklin Seal staff writer A spaceship hatchway opens to reveal a bleak, alien landscape. Out- side, a fierce, red w ind howls below a distant sun. Bizarre 'ock formations loom through a sar f torm as three explorers in cumbersome spacesuit3 inch down a ladder onto waiting land rovers and rumble ofT into the great unknown. A scene from Hollywoods latest sci-f- i blockbuster? A glimpse of future life on Mars? Actually, the truth is much closer to home try, Hanksville, sometime next month. That is, if Utah Trust Lands issues a requested permit. Beginning around the end of November, The Mars Society, a group devoted to promoting human exploration of Mars, hopes to launch a unique research project in the gray Researchers check gear prior to heading out on ATVs during a Flashline. Photos courtesy of The Mars Society. clay hills five miles northwest of Hanksville. The Mars Desert Research tion will consist of a 27-fo- ot Sta- diameter, two-mont- h stint at mock space capsule, plus a variety of vehicles and scientific equipment. Six people will live Continued on Page A2 Local man survives fall, 2 broken legs Long Canyon ordeal lasts for 40 hours by Franklin Seal staff writer A Moab man on Friday broke his when he ran his truck off the road leg and into a large boulder while descending Long Canyon. Then, while looking for firewood, he fell off a cliff and broke the other leg. Unable to walk, and trapped at the bottom of a 100-f)deep canyon, he two almost days in the open spent a warm bj fire until mounkeeping tain bikers found him Sunday morning and called rescuers. He was quickly transported to a waiting air 40-fo- ot Marys Hospital in Grand Junction. James Fisher, 43, was reported by hospital authorities to be in fair condition Tuesday evening. Rex Tanner, Grand County Search and Rescue (GCSR) commander, said Fishers Nissan pickup ran out of gas as he was coming down the Business Directory: 67 Dining & Lodging: 63 46-- 7 switchbacks near the top of the canyon. When he turned the key off to restart the engine, the steering wheel locked and he lost control of the truck. It went off the left side of the road and slammed into a boulder approximately the same size as the truck. Fisher later told rescuers he thought he cracked or broke his leg in the accident. Grand County Sheriffs Deputy Brian Backus, who was the first official to respond to the scene on Sunday, said Fisher apparently was planning to stay with the vehicle. He had been trying to gather firewood as darkness set in w hen he fell off the cliff and found himself stranded with two broken legs at the bottom of the canyon about 100 feet below road level. 40-fo- ot Tanner said the place where Fisher landed was rough, with lots of sharp shale. According to Backus, Fisher reportedly crawled about 10 feet to a spot where he could lay in sand next to a large dead tree. He lit a fire and apparently kept it going through his more than survival ordeal. Tanner said a group of mountain 40-ho- ur bikers passed Fishers car as they were driving up the canyon on Saturday But after not finding anyone in the vicinity, they assumed its occupants had left the scene intending to come back for the vehicle another time. Later, while camping at the top of the canyon, the two men and one woman reported hearing sounds but could not tell what the sounds were. Sunday morning, one of the group rode down the canyon to investigate. They located Fisher, then two of the group rode back to town for help. Backus drove out to the scene, found Fisher and the one remaining mountain biker, then called for GCSR. Rescuers carried Fisher dow n canyon to a point where the road approached the bottom, then loaded him aboard an ambulance. Backus said when he found the victim, Fisher was in pretty good shape. Tanner said, all he had on was a and jeans. Luckily, it sort of warmed up on Saturday evening. He should have been dead. Ive seen a lot of guys go through a lot less and died." Moab upbringing has impact on noted poet 6 Sports: 6 1 by Lisa Church staff writer To subscribe to The Times-I- n dependent call Sam Hamill says poetry saved his life. Hamills journey from troubled teen to poet, translator, almost seems the stuff of movies, but he credits much of his success to his adopted faith of Zen Buddhism, and a tireless work ethic he learned from summers spent on a ranch near Moab. Hamill is in Moab this week as award-winnin- g tubscribemoabtimes.com CThe nt This news- - Continued on Tage FlASMLINt MARS KTic ambulance that flew him to St. T Inside The T imes Region Review: mal, locals may find their parks Members of the Flashline Research Station on Devon Island in the Canadian high arctic head back to the tuna can hab" module after a day of martian" exploration. A similar operation is slated for an area near Hanksville. ot 41.05 Editorials, Letters: Historic Photo: A2 Notices: 66 Obituaries: 45 Octo- 2 B7 Nov. 8 by Paul J. Morris to special The Ryan Nielson. At the comparatively tender age of 27, Coach Nielson is embarking on his 5th campaign as head of the Red Devils. Prior to his arrival in Moab, while attending Southern Utah University, he helped build a successful program at Parowan where one of his hardest working players was current JV coach Kenny Lindsay. Preceding his Parowan stint, Ryan ran the freshman and JV programs two seasons for legendary coach, Dennis Jones, in Blanding. His teams suffered only 3 losses while winning 24. Sharp shooter, Monty Jones, current Devils freshman coach, was a consistent contributor both years. It should come as no surprise then that Ryans senior yearbook prediction, somewhat tongue in cheek, that Ryan would replace his mentor and beloved Coach Jones in 20 years, would portent his having nine years of bench experience leading into season. Unfortunately Coach Denthis 2001-200nis Jones would die in a tragic automobile accident in the summer of 2000. Part of his lifes work lives on however, embodied in the determination and leadership of Coach Ryan Nielson. A visit to his office, the large window of which has a scenic view of the boys locker room, reveals shelves containing a library of basketball films, books, old clinic handouts, and other reference material compiled over the years. Coach Nielson is a student of the game. Next, scan his walls to see photographs of all his past teams, including the State Champion 1992 San Juan Broncos on which Ryan played his senior year. Even as he is interviewed, he is working on his practice schedule for that nights practice. Most people dont know that coaches set a formal practice schedule. Or should. classifieds, real estate Nov. 7 booth in October compared to ber 2000. Canyonlands saw their October numbers drop 13 4 pe rcent The Nielson era exudes passion, intensity, hard work, success team at Grand County High under the tutelage of Coach for its design and creativity. Read the story in The T- -l Extra! Also see Date Hah Low ued decline. The bright side is that with fewer visitors out on the trails, and with late fall temperatures above nor- even more enjoyable than ever Arches reported 7.5 percent fewer visitors through the entrance high-qualit- home equipment. the tragic events of Sept. 11 have apparently caused tourists across the nation and around the world to stay home in droves. If anyone had their doubts about how that trend might impact Moabs national parks, Octo ber visitation figures from Arches and Canyonlands showed a contin- Sports preview: Open house A model Thursday, November 15, 2001 WWW.moabtinies.com Number 46 500 Volume 108 Try paper is printed on recycled paper and is recyclable. Coach Ryan Nielson teaches some of the finer points of basketball during recent drills. OR COPY: t 1 part of Voluntary Exile, the first annual Moab Writers Conference running Nov. He will be part of 15-1- a 7. free literary reading and dis- cussion event Nov. 16 at Star Hall at 7 p.m. (See more information Page A3.) Hamill, or phaned as a child, was raised by a foster family, and his foster mother was a first cousin to the Lester Taylor family. He came to know the Moab and Four Corners areas through visits in the late 1940s, early 1950s to the Taylors Bar-- Ranch. He says his A summers working on the ranch taught him many life lessons. I loved horses and animals and wilderness, and learned a lot about Continued on Page A2 |