February 2007

Greetings from Oregon,

While many places in the US have had very bad weather lately, it's been very nice in Oregon for the past month. The joy of living in Portland is that while we don't have far to go to play in the snow, we, mostly, don't have to live in it. We've had magical moonlight and day snowshoe trips. And even though our Alpine Mountaineering field session ended on a gear-testing rainy note, most of the day was quite nice.

More snow is now falling in the mountains and we had a great snowshoe trip today.

Gift Certificate Winners
We participated in two Health Fairs last Month and the drawing winners were:
CareOregon - Irene Elston
Tyco Electronics - William Mack
Irene and William, please get in touch and we'll send you your gift certificate.

Read on for descriptions of our upcoming trips and a discussion of bear and cougar encounters in the Tips Section.

We hope you can join us for your next adventure in 2007.

Past newsletters are available at the OPA Website

As always, our intent is to send this newsletter only to people who wish to receive it. If you don't want it, please click the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. There you will also find a link which allows you to send this eNews to a friend or colleague. We invite you to take a trip with Oregon Peak Adventures. You may sign-up by e-mailing us at info@oregonpeakadventures.com, calling us at (877) 965-5100, or using our secure form.

MT. ST. HELENS

Dome building activity continues with little change in the low level of activity. Daily USGS updates are available at http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/CurrentActivity/.

We have purchased permits for most of our scheduled climbs for the 2007 summer season. If you are planning to climb St. Helens with us this year, you need to reserve your spot right away, as the permits get difficult to obtain as we get close to the 100 person per day quota period which begins May 15.

Our next scheduled St. Helens climb is March 17-18, 2007 via the Butte Camp Route. This includes an overnight snowcamp and an optional orientation through Portland Community College on March 14.

Please check the website for 2007 scheduled St. Helens climbs. If you want to climb on other dates, please let us know and we'll arrange a climb for you (weekdays only April 1 - October 31).

You can observe St. Helens at the VolcanoCam and check the weather forecast at the National Weather Service.

camp, and, if the weather conditions are appropriate, climb to the rim of St. H

TIPS
ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS
I've had several questions about what you should do when encountering a predator in the backcountry. First, let's review the list from the October 2006 issue of Backpacker Magazine of the ways people die in the backcountry, ranked by number of deaths:

1. Falls
2. Drowning
3. Heart Attack
4. Hypothermia
5. Heat Stress
6. Lightning
7. Avalanche
8. Suicide
9. Flash Flood
10. Insects
11. Snakes & Spiders
12. Predators

So the probability of dying from an animal attack is very low. Annual deaths as listed from the Backpacker article are:
Snakes - 12-14
Spiders - one every few years
Alligators - 5 in 2006, but 30 in the last 50 years.The article says that most attacks occur in lakeside Florida communities and golf courses.

COUGARS - One - two a year. A website - Lew's Lion Info states that since 1890 in the US and Canada, there have been 18 confirmed attacks that resulted in 19 fatalities. Another website lists and describes ALL of the attacks.

So what do you do if you are attacked by a cougar? First, if you are a small person in cougar country, it's better if you do not travel alone. On the initial encounter, if you haven't yet been pounced on, make yourself look big and make noise. Calling for help is good. In most of the attacks described, the cougar went for the head and neck. Fight back every way you can, poking the eyes appeared to be a good tactic. If you're really interested, read the website.

BEARS - From 2000 - 2006: An average of two deaths/year in North America from black bears and less than two deaths/year from grizzlies (nine total). Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance, by Stephen Herrero is an oft quoted source. In Backpacker, Herrero states that all of the black bear attacks were predatory and all of the grizzly attacks were defensive. So fight black bears, and play dead with grizzlies. He says to travel noisy, contain food odors, and store food securely in bear country.

The UDAP company sells anti-bear pepper spray and their website has good information about traveling in bear country.

My only bear encounter ever, was on the trail at Cape Lookout State Park on the Oregon Coast about four years ago. A client and I were hiking out to the end of the Cape when we encountered a black bear coming toward us on the trail. All of us were surprised,including the bear, and my client and I kept talking and slowly backed up around the corner. After a minute, I peeked out and the bear was still standing in the trail. We made focused small talk for a couple more minutes ( "Wow, it's a bear. "Yeah." "Looks big." "Yeah." "I wonder if the bear is still there?"... and so on) and I looked again. The bear wasn't in sight and we continued on. We did take great delight in telling the people coming toward us that we had seen the bear, but I have never come upon another one - anywhere.

I had seen the sign at the trailhead warning that there were bears there, but had always discounted it. I called the Oregon Wildlife office and told them about meeting the bear. The lady said that bear encounters are relatively common, but incidents are very rare.

In the Mt. Margaret Backcountry, north of St. Helens, we see lots of bear scat, especially during huckleberry season; but no sightings of bears. I did see a momma bear with three cubs (two black, one blonde!) on the road to Lava Canyon on the east side of St. Helens. The gate at Marble Mt. SnoPark had just been opened the day before and I guess they weren't expecting traffic.

While the probability of an attack is very low, it's a big deal to the people who are attacked. So pay attention and be safe in bear and cougar country. As we build houses in their hunting areas, we would expect that there will be more encounters.

INTERESTED IN SETTING UP AN OUTING?
Please give us a call if you are interested in setting up an outing for your work group or family. We handle all the arrangements including transportation and food at a reasonable price. If you are coming to Portland for a conference or convention, we would be delighted to set-up outings for your attendees. Just let us know when.

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