Future "Big One" earthquake in Pacific Northwest

Part of me finds disaster stuff fascinating and would love to see it .. Like a movie.

Then I have to remember it's real stuff. Anyone else get like that? Same sensation when a big hurricane forms
 
aGDevil2k said:
Part of me finds disaster stuff fascinating and would love to see it .. Like a movie.

Then I have to remember it's real stuff. Anyone else get like that? Same sensation when a big hurricane forms
Click to expand...
Definitely, can't look away. I got zero work done for days when that tsunami hit Phuket.
 
aGDevil2k said:
Part of me finds disaster stuff fascinating and would love to see it .. Like a movie.

Then I have to remember it's real stuff. Anyone else get like that? Same sensation when a big hurricane forms
Click to expand...
Years and years ago I wanted to experience a huge hurricane.

In 1989, I was in the US Virgin Islands when Hurricane Hugo hit as a STRONG Category 4 storm…….trust me on his…..you don’t want to be anywhere near a powerful hurricane - especially in a 3rd world country or a borderline 3rd world one such as the USVI.

I was also high up on Mount Foraker in the Alaska Range when a typical Alaskan “don’t fuck with me storm” hit. We were probably at 16,100 feet or so…..needing to reach 17,400 to summit…..we quickly knew summiting was not happening. We were going for the summit and woke to a drastically dropping barometer and fingers of clouds that meant we just weren’t screwed, we might be in danger…..This was a multi-day storm……100+ mph winds, driven snow, drifting snow, negative 30-35 Fahrenheit…..we were tucked into a small ice cave in a gully…..we had a lot of fuel, plenty of food for 4-5 days, herbal tea (drinking hot water quickly gets boring and caffeinated drinks are diuretics, and a mountain of snow and ice to melt for water).

Sleeping (or trying to sleep) at 16,000 feet in a small snow cave with a sloping floor SUCKS. Trying to sleep in a Four Seasons bed at 16,000 feet likely sucks. Your heart is just racing and pounding.

We hoped and hoped the storm would blow through and give us a window to summit - that was Days 1-3……but, we knew we were kidding ourselves……Day 4….we pretended to have a hope to summit…..Days 5-6 we hoped for a window to descend…….Day 3 we’d started rationing food (and we weren’t eating big on Day 2). Late on Day 6 we had a weather window and we started down…..fast, slow, careful…..found a snow cave 2,000 feet above the glacier before the storm came in again…….woke to one glorious blue Alaska Range sky.

Whether at sea level or high altitude, one doesn’t want a bad storm. You can do everything right and the storm might kill you.

I’ve also I been in horrific, killing storms on Mt. Washington and the Presidentials in NH and the High Peaks in NY’s Adirondacks - I’m a slow learner. Again, extreme weather is lethal. Hell, drizzle, a slight breeze, and 60 degrees is lethal in the Presidentials or Coastal New England.
 
Zoo_View said:
Years and years ago I wanted to experience a huge hurricane.

In 1989, I was in the US Virgin Islands when Hurricane Hugo hit as a STRONG Category 4 storm…….trust me on his…..you don’t want to be anywhere near a powerful hurricane - especially in a 3rd world country or a borderline 3rd world one such as the USVI.

I was also high up on Mount Foraker in the Alaska Range when a typical Alaskan “don’t fuck with me storm” hit. We were probably at 16,100 feet or so…..needing to reach 17,400 to summit…..we quickly knew summiting was not happening. We were going for the summit and woke to a drastically dropping barometer and fingers of clouds that meant we just weren’t screwed, we might be in danger…..This was a multi-day storm……100+ mph winds, driven snow, drifting snow, negative 30-35 Fahrenheit…..we were tucked into a small ice cave in a gully…..we had a lot of fuel, plenty of food for 4-5 days, herbal tea (drinking hot water quickly gets boring and caffeinated drinks are diuretics, and a mountain of snow and ice to melt for water).

Sleeping (or trying to sleep) at 16,000 feet in a small snow cave with a sloping floor SUCKS. Trying to sleep in a Four Seasons bed at 16,000 feet likely sucks. Your heart is just racing and pounding.

We hoped and hoped the storm would blow through and give us a window to summit - that was Days 1-3……but, we knew we were kidding ourselves……Day 4….we pretended to have a hope to summit…..Days 5-6 we hoped for a window to descend…….Day 3 we’d started rationing food (and we weren’t eating big on Day 2). Late on Day 6 we had a weather window and we started down…..fast, slow, careful…..found a snow cave 2,000 feet above the glacier before the storm came in again…….woke to one glorious blue Alaska Range sky.

Whether at sea level or high altitude, one doesn’t want a bad storm. You can do everything right and the storm might kill you.

I’ve also I been in horrific, killing storms on Mt. Washington and the Presidentials in NH and the High Peaks in NY’s Adirondacks - I’m a slow learner. Again, extreme weather is lethal. Hell, drizzle, a slight breeze, and 60 degrees is lethal in the Presidentials or Coastal New England.
Click to expand...
I had/have a good friend who enjoys climbing. He was part of a team that summited Denali back in the 1970's. He was the cameraman. This was long enough ago so that the "motion picture" camera with all the accessories weighed about 60 pounds. And this was in addition to all his personal gear. He was not asked to carry any of the food. It was a chance of a lifetime for him and he leapt at it. That trip not only scratched that partucular itch, but it also permanently extinguished that itch. For a couple of years, he'd take the elevator for one floor just to avoid any chance of flashbacks. ETA: The cherry on top of this particular s**t sundae, was that while all film was developed, nothing was ever done with it.
 
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Zoo_View said:
Years and years ago I wanted to experience a huge hurricane.

In 1989, I was in the US Virgin Islands when Hurricane Hugo hit as a STRONG Category 4 storm…….trust me on his…..you don’t want to be anywhere near a powerful hurricane - especially in a 3rd world country or a borderline 3rd world one such as the USVI.

I was also high up on Mount Foraker in the Alaska Range when a typical Alaskan “don’t fuck with me storm” hit. We were probably at 16,100 feet or so…..needing to reach 17,400 to summit…..we quickly knew summiting was not happening. We were going for the summit and woke to a drastically dropping barometer and fingers of clouds that meant we just weren’t screwed, we might be in danger…..This was a multi-day storm……100+ mph winds, driven snow, drifting snow, negative 30-35 Fahrenheit…..we were tucked into a small ice cave in a gully…..we had a lot of fuel, plenty of food for 4-5 days, herbal tea (drinking hot water quickly gets boring and caffeinated drinks are diuretics, and a mountain of snow and ice to melt for water).

Sleeping (or trying to sleep) at 16,000 feet in a small snow cave with a sloping floor SUCKS. Trying to sleep in a Four Seasons bed at 16,000 feet likely sucks. Your heart is just racing and pounding.

We hoped and hoped the storm would blow through and give us a window to summit - that was Days 1-3……but, we knew we were kidding ourselves……Day 4….we pretended to have a hope to summit…..Days 5-6 we hoped for a window to descend…….Day 3 we’d started rationing food (and we weren’t eating big on Day 2). Late on Day 6 we had a weather window and we started down…..fast, slow, careful…..found a snow cave 2,000 feet above the glacier before the storm came in again…….woke to one glorious blue Alaska Range sky.

Whether at sea level or high altitude, one doesn’t want a bad storm. You can do everything right and the storm might kill you.

I’ve also I been in horrific, killing storms on Mt. Washington and the Presidentials in NH and the High Peaks in NY’s Adirondacks - I’m a slow learner. Again, extreme weather is lethal. Hell, drizzle, a slight breeze, and 60 degrees is lethal in the Presidentials or Coastal New England.
Click to expand...
This story highlights what a wuss I am when it comes to tolerating discomfort, danger, and logistics. I hear stories like yours, and a constant stream of "no, no, nope, uh uh, hell no" runs through my brain.

I was once "outdoorsy", in the sense that I spent a lot of day trips in state and national parks, dabbled in scuba, outdoor climbing, triathlon, adventure races, and have dozens of backcountry trips under the belt, though none more than four. My last two backcountry trips involved mountain lions (probably a 1:10,000 chance) and disabused me of the "outdoorsy" identity. Woke up on the third day of a Lost Coast trip to find lion tracks in the damp sand, circling our tents; fourth day/night of that trip felt eerie. Subsequent encounter, I was solo about 10-12 miles in at a park in inland SoCal. Walking through a narrow cut, a rock dislodged from the ridge maybe 70-80ft to my left; I froze, scanned, and under a scrubby mesquite was a lion, nearly perfectly blended into the chaparral.

In that moment, I was done with the trip and slowly turned back the way I came - quite the intense 20+ mile day. My intellectual mind understood the dangers were low and that I'd likely been observed by big cats dozens of times, but visualizing the risk imprinted on my sympathetic nervous system. I've since become content with long-ish day hikes and trail running, which is pretty run-of-the-mill in the PNW.
 
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