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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    be here now
    Posts
    5,369

    Snow Removal Truck kills Sleeping Camper at Bachelor...file under dumb things done

    wtf was he thinking?

    hope you're getting some wherever you are now, Mr. Camper.

    http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbc...&nav_category=

    Camper found dead in Mt. Bachelor lot
    Heavy snow-removal equipment strikes man in sleeping bag
    By Keith Chu and Cindy Powers / The Bulletin
    Published: January 28. 2006 6:00AM PST
    An unidentified white male was struck by snow-removal equipment early Friday at Mt. Bachelor's West Village parking lot, and did not survive the accident.

    The individual was apparently inside a sleeping bag, camping out in the lot at the time he was hit, said Carly Carmichael, Mt. Bachelor's director of marketing. A snow-removal equipment driver, unaware of the camper's presence, struck the individual while clearing the lot.

    The victim's name is not being released until family members have been notified.

    The accident took place just after 4 a.m., according to a news release from the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office.

    "It was pitch black and snowing hard," Carmichael said. "We got three inches overnight so there's no telling if drifting was a factor."

    Carmichael would not disclose whether a snow plow or snow blower was involved in the accident. She confirmed that there were no vehicles or tents in the area where the individual was hit.

    The person was alone at the time of the accident and was not inside a vehicle, according to Deschutes County Undersheriff Larry Blanton. The sheriff's office is conducting the death investigation.

    "We are waiting to hear from the State Medical Examiner's Office before releasing information about the exact cause of death and positive identification," Blanton said.

    Under Oregon law, the State Medical Examiner's Office is required to conduct an investigation into accidental deaths.

    Additional information regarding cause of death and identification of the deceased will likely be available next week, Blanton said.

    Snow removal crews are required to drive the parking lots at Mt. Bachelor to check for obstacles or anything that might hinder their ability to do their job, according to Carmichael. Crews responsible for plowing on Friday followed those procedures, she said.

    Joe Orcelletto and his dog, Colby, were skijoring on Friday afternoon in the parking lot, near where the incident occurred. Orcelletto, who saw law enforcement personnel there when he arrived around 8:30 a.m., said it's common knowledge that camping in the parking lot isn't allowed.

    "To make an igloo or a cave out in the parking lot, that's crazy," Orcelletto said.

    Mt. Bachelor does not allow wintertime overnight camping in its parking lots, with the exception of recreational vehicles, according to Carmichael. She said those with RVs who want to camp overnight must get permission from resort officials.

    The fatality coincided with Mt. Bachelor's busy "Free Ski Day," an annual event benefiting the Central Oregon Community Action Agency Network. The event attracted an estimated 7,000 people, Carmichael said, about twice the number of people that normally hit the slopes on Fridays.

    By the time people began arriving, the area where the accident occurred had been cordoned off, Carmichael said. The incident did not affect daily operations at the ski area.

    Cindy Powers can be reached at 541-617-7812 or at cpowers@bendbulletin.com. Keith Chu can be reached at 541-504-2336 or at kchu@bend bulletin.com.
    Let me lock in the system at Warp 2
    Push it on into systematic overdrive
    You know what to do

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Iron Range
    Posts
    4,961
    Holy shit. That sucks. I guess you can file me under dumb too.

    Back when I was in college('92-'98), going to Oregon State Univ, my buddy and I drove over to Bachelor after work on friday night from Corvallis with hopes of shredding the next day. It was snowing and we were stoked for some deep, however we were fuckin broke and didn't really have any buddies to crash with in Bend, so we took our camping gear.

    Our first plan was to carve out a nice tent pad on the unmolested snow surround the parking lot, but as we were doing so, a guy drove out from the lodge and warned us that the plows were going douche us with snow when they arrived in the morning. , what do we do now? We decided to just park my buddy's Civic in the middle of the lot and pitch the tent on the lee side of his car. All was fine, we had good thermarests and were insulated from the icey asphalt, but the wind was howling and soon snow drifts began to form along side the tent. I was half stoked for some new snow, but kinda concerned.

    I awoke at 6:00am to the sound of a revving diesel, doing chicken drivebys past our tent. I knew it was the plow cleaning up the lot, but I was thinking "how much snow has drifted? How deep is it? Can he see us?" I was waiting to get mauled by that fucker, tensed up. I should have climbed out to see what was up but I said fuck it and fell back asleep as the sound of the plow seemed to gradually do farther away. I woke up at 8:00, peeled open the tent and we were surrounded by a parking lot full of weekend warriors. Kinda weird. Glad I'm alive though.
    Last edited by bio-smear; 01-28-2006 at 02:54 PM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Republik Indonesia
    Posts
    7,289
    Carmichael would not disclose whether a snow plow or snow blower was involved in the accident.

    That would SUCK.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    WYO
    Posts
    9,709
    Bummer. That sucks.

    I always preferred to sleep in my car in the winter in parking lots, no matter how uncomfortable it can be in comparrison. If I got to a place that didn't allow overnight parking, I usually went down the road a ways where I wouldn't bother anybody, hop in the passenger seat and recline the seat. Car camping was kinda tough, but do-able in a Subaru Impreza sedan.
    "Have fun, get a flyrod, and give the worm dunkers the finger when you start double hauling." ~Lumpy

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    North Tahoe
    Posts
    915
    As close as I've gotten to this... One time i toured through colorado (tahoe boy here) for two weeks sleeping in my car. One night in the copper mtn parking lot it was dumping and I awoke to the front of my car being lifted off the ground by a towtruck! The driver was quite startled when I jumped out of the car and told him to stop!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    The Cone of Uncertainty
    Posts
    49,306
    It was Copper. I'm sure they had already checked the trunk for bodies, so no doubt you surprised the shit out of them.

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