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2010
March 2010 New Oshkosh snowplow arrives in the Park.
Here’s some information about the rotary:
Cost: $572,000.00
Replacement life cycle: 12-15 years
Manufacturer: Oshkosh
Model: H-3236B Snow Vehicle
Production model number 5, the first four were bought by Cal Trans.
Specification: This truck was developed as a result of Cal Trans’ need for a dependable heavy-duty road blower. This blower was compete against other manufacturers and was chosen because of its ability to handle the heavy, wet snow we get here in the Western U.S.
Length: 34′ 8″ – Width: 9’2 – Height: 12′ 7″ – Weight: 50,000 lbs
Twin engine design – Drive engine / Rear (powers the truck’s drivetrain): C13 Caterpillar engine @ 475HP Blower engine / Front (powers the blower head): C18 Caterpillar engine @ 575H Fuel capacity: 340 gallons
Snow removal rated capacity: 4000 tons / hour
March 04, 2010 (MT) Boy lost at Crater Lake remains a mystery (MT)
Seeing a story in the paper on March 1 about a 13-year-old boy lost in the snow in Washington made me think of the boy who was visiting Crater Lake a few years back and bolted into the woods.
I remember searchers looked for him for quite a while with no success. Was he ever found?
Sadly, the mystery of Samuel Boehlke’s disappearance remains unsolved more than three years after he vanished near the rim of the caldera at Crater Lake National Park.
Horsemen, mountain rescue squads and searchers with dogs combed the north rim of Crater Lake for days in October 2006 after the 8-year-old Portland-area boy became separated from his father. Rescue specialists from as far as northern Washington and Southern California gathered at Oregon’s only national park to look for the boy known as “Sammie.”
Helicopters combed a 4,000-acre search area, and rappellers from Yosemite National Park scrambled down the steep caldera looking for the boy, but no trace of him was ever found.
During the search, park officials said Sammie had some behaviors that were associated with low-level autism, but he had not been diagnosed with an autism disorder. The family declined to talk to reporters during the search, which ended when early season snow covered the park.
Michael Justin, public information officer for the park, said Wednesday that a large search-and-rescue training exercise at the park last fall focused on locating some trace of the boy, but nothing was found.
Justin said Sammie’s disappearance “still keeps me awake at night sometimes. We feel so sorry for the family.”
The fruitless search in the snow reminded some volunteers of a similar effort eight years earlier just a few miles away.
In December 1998, dozens of volunteers tramped through deep snow in search of Derrick Engebretson, an 8-year-old Klamath County boy who vanished while cutting a Christmas tree with his father. That search ended after a week, when searchers could find no sign of the boy. His disappearance remains a mystery, too.
April 19 2010 By Brandi Smith KEZI News 9
If everything had gone according to plan, the Shuttle Discovery would be back on Earth Monday.
Yet because of some rain and overcast skies, the crew gets to spend another full day in space. That’s just fine for Eugene native Jim Dutton, the shuttle’s pilot.
It’s been more than two weeks since Dutton launched into space.
“It has been an incredible experience so I’m trying to make every last minute of it count,” said Dutton. “I think every one of the last few days, I’ve turned to my crewmates and said, ‘I’m getting sad. It’s almost over.'”
On Monday, his outer space getaway got extended by one more day. That’s another 24 hours to check out the amazing views from the space shuttle. But there’s one sight — witnessed during his stint on the space station — that Dutton won’t soon forget.
“We had a daytime pass over the Northwest. We came right over Portland. You’re looking down on Mount St. Helens. We saw Rainier, Hood. We continued to the east and we could look back and see Crater Lake and the Cascades. It was just absolutely amazing,” he said. “That’ll be a memory I’ll certainly keep filed away for a very long time.”
May 6 2010 House panel passes Oregon Caves bill by Oregon Democrat-Times
Legislation to expand the Oregon Caves National Monument, sponsored by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-4th District, passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday, the congressman’s office reported from Washington.
The legislation would transfer 4,070 acres of Forest Service-managed land to the existing 480-acre Oregon Caves National Monument and designates the River Styx, the underground stream running through Oregon Caves, as the first subterranean Wild and Scenic River in the nation.
The 4,070-acre expansion will be managed as a National Preserve, which will allow the National Park Service to conduct forest restoration and fuel reduction to prevent fire. Hunting, fishing, and trapping would also be allowed on the preserve.
Grizzly bones that were found in the cave in 1995 were estimated to be at least 50,000 years old, the oldest known from either North or South America.
The NPS has proposed to expand the boundary of the monument to encompass several other caves, as well as the surrounding Cave Creek Watershed numerous times, in 1939, in 1949, and most recently in 1999.
August 14 2010 First-time participant David Pokorny
captured the marathon portion of the 35th annual Crater Lake Rim Runs and Marathon, Becky Kirschenmann of Klamath Falls successfully defended her women’s marathon title from a year ago. Pokorny, from St. Louis, Mo., built a sizeable lead on the 26.2-mile course and defeated second- place finisher John Ticer, of Eugene, by almost eight minutes. Pokorny registered a winning time of 3 hours, 12 minutes, 12 seconds. Ticer came in at 3:20.10.
Unaccustomed to the high-altitude course that ranges from 5,980-to 7,850-feet, Pokorny said he concentrated on taking deep breaths and staying hydrated during the It may seem like a slow time but I know I raced hard.” The course record for men is 2:38.34, set by Bekele Tesfaye in 1997.Last year’s winner, Nicolas Karr, posted a time of 2:46.21. Jenn Shelton, of Ashland, set the women’s mark of 3:15.01 in 2008. Kirby Garlitz, a 2010 Mazama High graduate, was victorious in the 13-mile race with a time of 1:30.23. Garlitz, 18, was the 6.7-mile winner a year ago. Bend’s Susie Jones was the women’s 13-mile race winner at 1:48.30. Jones finished 10th overall. In the 6.7-mile run, a pair of Klamath Falls teenagers battled it out in the men’s race. Paul Adams, 16, defeated Alek Angeli by one mere second. Adams, an incoming junior at Mazama, finished at 37:31 for the close victory over Klamath Union junior Angeli. Taylor Wallace, of Klamath Falls, won the women’s 6.7- mile race with a mark of 41:10. Wallace, a former Henley High cross country and track state champion, is now a sophomore runner at the University of Oregon.
Septermber 11 2010 Car rolls off Rim Road at North Junction and plunges into Crater Lake. The driver and passenger were out of the car at the time and were viewing the Lake when the car rolled past the rock wall and tumbled into the blue water 1,000 feet below.
September 17 2010 By Chris Conrad Mail Tribune
Officials have released the names of the Ashland couple whose car, with their dog inside, plunged 1,100 feet into Crater Lake.
Crater Lake National Park officials say Shauna McHugh and Tobias Swanson were enjoying the view Saturday night from an overlook near North Junction Scenic Overlook when their 2003 Volkswagen Passat tumbled over the edge of the caldera and splashed into the lake below.
The driver apparently didn’t set the emergency brake on the car when he got out, a press release about the incident said. The car rolled backward out of the parking area and over the rim. A park spokeswoman said the dog reportedly climbed out the sunroof early in the car’s descent and was able to climb out of the caldera.
It took the dog, an Akita mix named Haley, about 15 minutes to make her way back up the 600-foot slope to her owners. The dog suffered only minor injuries, park officials said.
Submitted by Jon Merryman (not verified) on September 24, 2010 I heard they quoted the dog after the rescue as saying: “That’s Swan small step for dog, one Swan leap for dog-kind.”
The investigation revealed the car rolled backward in an arc across the scenic overlook’s parking area for almost 100 feet. It cruised through a narrow opening between the rock wall and a clump of trees and went over the edge of the caldera.
It fell more than 1,000 feet and came to rest in 10 to 30 feet of water, park officials said.
Its engine, transmission and drive train are scattered along the wall of the caldera, in a trail of car parts and personal items from inside the car.
The clean-up and recovery will be a challenge because of the steep terrain, loose rock and limited lake access. The removal will come in two stages, beginning with a helicopter operation scheduled for next week, weather permitting. The second phase will most likely required experienced rescue personnel who might repel down into the caldera to clean up debris.
The last mishap of this kind occurred in October of 1922 when a brand new Lincoln belonging to a couple from Klamath Falls rolled over the rim and into the lake near the present day location of the Sinnott Memorial Overlook in Rim Village, park officials said.
September 23 2010 CRATER LAKE CAR REMOVAL By Paul Fattig Mail Tribune
Even the owner likely would have had trouble identifying the 2,500 pounds of crushed metal sitting on the northwestern rim of Crater Lake late Wednesday morning.
One clue could be found in the words printed on the visor hanging from what was once the frame of a windshield: “Air Bag Warning — Flip Visor Over.”
It has been 88 years since the last car plunged into Crater Lake, according to park officials.
“The only record I could find was in October of 1922 when a couple from Klamath Falls were over by the lodge and the car rolled into the caldera,” said park spokeswoman Marsha McCabe. “Fortunately, they didn’t go in and they had just retrieved their baby from the car before it rolled in.
“He was a barber and their last name was Swanson,” she added. “It’s my understanding that the frame of the old car is down at the base of what is now the Sinnott (Memorial Overlook) but I’ve never seen it. It’s supposed to be a Lincoln.”
The fact one of the owners of the Volkswagen that went over the rim on Sept. 11 was also named Swanson hasn’t been lost on park officials.
“We’re not going to let any Swansons near the edge from now on,” quipped park superintendent Craig Ackerman.
Sans tires, rims, muffler, bumpers and seemingly sand-blasted of much of its shiny black paint, the “thing” was the remains of a 2003 Volkswagen Passat that had tumbled 1,100 feet over the rim into the edge of the lake on Sept. 11.
“I expected it to be less of a car from what we saw down the slope,” observed Pete Reinhardt, the park’s chief ranger who initially investigated the accident. “I was kind of surprised this much of the car was intact. And that’s a good thing.”
Car owners Shauna McHugh and Tobias Swanson of Ashland had stopped to enjoy the view from the North Junction Scenic Overlook. After they stepped out of the vehicle, it rolled through an opening in a stonewall and over the rim.
Their dog, an Akita-Dingo mix named Haley, jumped out of the sun roof at about 600 feet and suffered a few cuts and bruises but was otherwise healthy after the ordeal, officials said.
Looking like a giant dragonfly, the K Max K-1200 helicopter from Swanson Group Aviation LLC in Grants Pass used a 200-foot cable and a heavy-duty cargo net to airlift the debris to a nearby parking lot Wednesday morning.
It was the first time a helicopter had been used to pull a car from the lake, park officials said. In fact, a car hadn’t plunged into the lake since 1922, they added.
After retrieving the main part of the car, the pilot returned to pull up a 600-pound bundle that included tires, rims and other parts that broke away during the descent.
The helicopter crew later replaced the cargo nets with a large grappling hook to remove five large pieces from the side of the rim.
The main section of the car containing the engine and gas tank had plunged into a pool about 10 feet deep on the western edge of the lake, the nation’s deepest at some 2,000 feet.
As it was, the vehicle caused very little pollution to the lake, world-renowned for its clarity, she said.
“They estimate at the most there was about 13 gallons of fluid in the car,” she said. “The gas tank was apparently half full. Gas dissipates very quickly.”
The helicopter, normally used for logging, firefighting and construction work, is capable of lifting up to 6,000 pounds, even at 7,000 feet above sea level, the elevation of the rim, said Jeff Allen, director of business development for the helicopter firm.
“What was left of the car weighed about 2,500 pounds but the car was 10 feet under the water,” he said. “When you are pulling something out of the water, it weighs more than it normally would atfirst. But the K Max performs very well at high altitude.”
How much do they charge an hour?
“It’s negotiable,” Allen said of the Volkswagen retrieval operation. “This is a job we did for the Department of Interior. I’m sure they are negotiating with the insurance company.”
The National Park Service is working with American Family Insurance on the cost of recovering the vehicle, officials said. An insurance company representative was at the site on Wednesday but was unavailable for an interview.
“Initially, we had funding from the regional office in Oakland (Calif.) for this because we didn’t want any delays,” Reinhardt said. “But we will go through a fund recovery and we are hoping the insurance company will pick that up.”
The vehicle’s owners were also present Wednesday but declined through the National Park Service to talk to the press.
“I think they are still in shock a little bit from the whole incident,” Reinhardt said, adding, “They are trying to move forward from here out.”
Although park employees will continue to warn visitors about the dangers at the rim, there are no plans to increase the number of stonewalls or other barriers, McCabe said.
“It is a very difficult place to put up fences or guardrails,” she said. “We have a crew that spends much of the summer repairing the rock walls that get damaged every winter because of the snow.
Crews on two park research boats, the Neuston and Ouzel, were on the lake surface to help gather debris that rolled the entire 1,100 feet to the lake. Two divers dove into the pool Tuesday to prepare the car and other material to be picked up by the helicopter on Wednesday.
A technical rescue crew likely will be used to retrieve the personal items left by the car on the upper end of the cliff face before the snow flies, officials said.
October 26 2010 CRLA Rim Drive closes at Crater Lake National Park
With slightly more than 13 inches of snow at the park headquarters,
officials at Crater Lake National Park today closed the Rim Drive around the iconic landmark for the season. Over a 50-year average, the Rim Road is closed 50% of the time by the third week of October.
Oct. 21 – 30 2010 Over 50 inches of snow in the past 9 days, and the lake was invisible most of that time.
December 31/January 1, 2010/11 Park Historian Stephen Mark has a teriffic accident leaving Crater Lake on
a very snowy evening along the South Engrance Road about New Years. A tree had fallen down across the highway in the snowstorm; in all the whitness Steve’s little pickup drove/slid mostly under the fallen tree. The impact removed part of the cab roof and the back canopy. Amazinlgy, Steve, who ducked in time, was able to continue driving his new “convertible” home to Ft. Klamath. (Story from M13)
December 2010 Visitation: 448,319
December 2010 Park budget for the fiscal year: $5,530,000
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