Posted on 02/02/2006 1:10:58 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
Students in Tutus Saved From Mountain Road
By Associated Press
February 1, 2006, 4:53 PM EST
PASADENA, Calif. -- Two dozen Caltech students wearing Superman capes, tutus and other odd attire as part of a hazing stunt were rescued after getting stranded on the Mount Wilson Toll Road.
Organizers of the California Institute of Technology initiation ritual said they didn't realize the road had been covered last year by a landslide.
"You've got to remember that common sense is not factored into the intelligence quotient," said Deputy Greg Gabriel, who leads the Altadena Search and Rescue team.
The annual Mount Wilson Night, when freshmen are initiated into the Page House dormitory at Caltech, started off as planned Monday night, Caltech sophomore Nick Goeden said Tuesday.
The group had a large dinner before dressing the freshmen in costumes and parading them throughout Pasadena. The young men and women were then taken to the Mount Wilson Observatory for the planned 10-mile descent down the road.
A quarter-mile from the bottom, the group got stranded in Eaton Canyon where the landslide blocked their path. Rescuers were called in at about 3 a.m.
The students didn't have flashlights, warm clothes or other important supplies, Gabriel said. But the deputy said they were equipped with "distinctive headgear -- hats with antennas and horns, that kind of stuff."
"Going up those trails in the middle of the night without any safety equipment and no lighting is pretty stupid," Gabriel said. "We've had washouts. If they took a wrong trail or fell off that trail, it's hundreds of feet down."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Prior to the tunnel being sealed, you might remember what we called "the ladders". Steep, rickety wooden stairs that led up to the shaft entrance. They were also removed in '73.
There was another trail, up along a razor ridge, that skirted the first fall on the left side. We used that as well, it had a few spots that required "exposed moves" that were in spots, hundreds of feet straight above that first fall.
That trail made the news down here a few months ago. A man and woman were attempting it around 4 in the morning, slid down a bit and were stuck, hurt. Cells phones to the rescue, they dial 911 and were pulled out by helicopter at dawn.
I have seen the concrete pads of old cabins, a bit below Idlehour campground, we used to camp near them.
Lastly, I took my three kids and wife, up over Henniger, along that "Telephone" trail, then down into the stream, last spring. I appeared to have been untraveled in years. We called it the "Windsor trail" as kids, I don't know why, perhaps one of the first cabin owners was named that and blazed that trail.
The kids were bored, but I was absolutely haunted by the scores of memories that flowed from Eaton Canyon. That area has some most beautiful and challenging topography anywhere, and its right in the heart of southern California. Thanks for jogging my memories. Check out that link, it has many other front range hikes that might jog your memories as well.
As we were once and our parents were and as there parents were.
Youth has been getting into trouble and pulling stupid stunts throughout history.
My buddy and did most of our exploring in the late '50's and early 60's. We FREE-CLIMBED up all the falls and down again. Absolutely nuts looking back on it.
We got stuck on one cliff for several hours and only made it off by traversing some microscopic cracks in the cliff to a safe spot to decend....fear of ridicule, publicity, and the Altadena Mountain Rescue Squad did wonders. Never been more scared in my life...
The tunnel WAS sealed back in the 50's....we, uhum,
made our own shortcut by taking out the rocks.....
BUMP!
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