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Show Wasatch Canyon Reporter € DitoRIdL Thoughts on the Wasatch It is October 4th, the paper is already unbelievably late. My transmission looks like a bin of shrapnel, and life, by most measures, is not good. Yet it has snowed 26 inches at Alta this week. The leaves have turned colors you usually only find in Vermont. As you look up at the Canyons you can see red leaves strewn amongst the straw colors of desert mountains...until you reach seven thousand feet. There starts the snow line that leads to promise of a biblically large snow winter. Bring it, I am ready. | Cel Phones while Touring As we get close to ski season it is time for me to off load a few pet peeves so | can go into the new season repentant and cleansed. First off: Cellular phones in the back country (don’t even mention the dorks on the tram trying to make big deals during their eight minute ride. You’ve seen them, Bogner suit, cap skis, digital phone, stem christie, and a look of fear at the top.) T he tram folks are mere inno- cents in comparison to the crime against nature that is perpetrated by someone sitting on top of a mountain, in the backcountry, jawing away at fifty cents a minute. When I drag my sorry carcass up to the top of Flagstaff, wheezing and sucking wind like a flat lander, I don’t want anyone reminding me that I am only an hour and a half away from a major metropolis. I just want to ooh and aahh until I get enough breath back to drop in. I toured with a fellow who brought a cellular phone once. He didn’t make any calls on the tour, yet we ran into some trouble. He told me before the hike that he brought it in case of emergencies. Unfortunately when the emergency came it was in the form of a slide that broke to the ground in the Catherine’s area leading to Brighton. It was a small chute, and we shouldn’t have been in it, but excitement over ruled common sense. I dropped it first, and pulled off to the right below a tree. Cellular boy dropped in second...and the whole chute gave way. It was the most amazing front row seat as the avalanche curled around his legs, he pointed his boards and rode shotgun down the avalanche. I started screaming “TURN FRIDAY /SATURDAY BANDS: G&T HIGHWATER PANTS 13&14 THE PINCH 20 & 21 TBA 24 & 2B o IRS FARA TUESDAY, HALLOWEEN IOTH MOUNTAIN wu” TUESDAY IS LOCALS NIGHT APO) THURSDAY IS STARVING STUDENTS BAR & NIGHT GRILL yoo LATE NIGHT FOOD GRILL OPEN TILL1AM NO MEMBERSHIP LOCATED ON REQUI RED ¢ STREET- LEVEL HisTORic AAEM IM ST. OZ OUTN and thinking “good god he has the cel phone and the car keys.” Last season at an avalanche information class for snowmobilers several of the participants were heard discussing the merits of Avalanche transceivers versus Cellular phones. The wizened self appointed leader of the group offered this gem of wisdom. “We all plan to carry cel phones and when someone gets trapped in a slide we call him and listen for the ringing phone.” Lets hope this unlucky traveler has ; the good sense not to answer. comuse Second backcountry. the of knowledge have First Here are the rules: mon sense (see error above.) Third have an Avalanche Transceiver, shovel, and know how to use them. Somewhere after warm dry clothes, Ouiji board, and Klister comes the importance of the Cellular phone. Killing animals that attack humans There is nothing that disgusts me more than reading an article about some hiker, biker, tourist, whatever who stumbled onto a cherubic bear cub, stroked the cute thing, and then got an arm chewed by an angry mother bear. Invariably the article ends by saying the bear was destroyed because of it’s tendency to attack humans. They alway say that like it makes some kind of sense. As humanity voraciously gobbles up all of the remaining natural habitat for North America’s large carnivores these attacks will become more frequent. While I admit this issue isn’t a burning local one, it gets my goat more than Deedee’s tax returns. I haven’t the foggiest who makes policy on an issue like this, but how about we change it. I don’t want our State Parks and National Forest Land to become woodsy Disneyland’s. I like feeling that there is some unseen danger that I must be aware of. It has to do with being responsible for myself; which I am woefully unable to do anywhere else in life, except perhaps the back country. PLACE - 645-2329 Page 2 |
