Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 2002)
FCHtUfe Get out of your ’hood and up to Mt. Hood V/edNEsdAy, J anuary X), 2002 The ClAckAMAS P rint JEFFHEILMAN Staff Writer Mt. Hondk^. SKIBOWL 110"base $26 Full-day MT. HOOD Ml MEADOWS 154"base $44 Full-day 169”base $38 Full-day INTERNET PHOTO This snowboarder is catching some phat air in a half pipe. As the winter season of 2002 proceeds, snow condi tions are looking up at Mt. Hood. Although lift-ticket prices at Mt. Hood Meadows have risen for day passes, the price for night passes has dropped. Snowboarding was a lot cheaper four years ago when the price was $3O-$35 for a day pass. Currently the price is $44. That gives you from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.; a pass from 12 p.m. until 4 p.m. is $37. The night pass, from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m., has been lowered this year to a very reasonable $20, opposed to $30; and Saturday nights are Safeway club card nights. Visit any Safeway gro cery store and acquire a Safeway club card and you can get Saturday nights half- off. Snow conditions this year for Meadows are the best they have been in three years, with 138 inches of snow at the base and 154 inches on the upper elevations. A lot of fresh snow has been dumped and a lot more is expected. With this in mind, the best time to start is When there is a lot of fresh, soft snow on the mountain. Traveling north on the moun tain you will find yourself at Timberline. As the elevation gets higher you might also find the snow getting deeper. That is because Timberline is the highest resort on the mountain. With a base of 169 inches and constant snowfall, T-line is going to be a very powdery place. For the past few days, 27 inches of fresh snow has been the average. Hence,'soft, fluffy riding. Traveling back down the mountain a little ways, you will find Mt. Hood Ski Bowl. Ski Bowl is known as America’s largest night ski area. With a base of 110 inches and con stant flurries of powder, Ski Bowl is also snow-saturated. Keep in mind that Ski Bowl is the lowest elevated resort on the mountain; so be careful for wet, hard and possibly icy snow conditions. If you are wondering about getting up to the mountain this year, stop wondering and make it happen, because if you’re not careful, this spectacular snow season just might pass you by. Students learn about life in Death Valley DAISY BAIN A & E Editor Students who are interested in biol ogy and geology have a first-hand chance to study animals, plants, and rocks in Death Valley, a place where the temperature can reach between 90- 100 degrees this time of year. TheCCC science department is giv ing a three-credit field course in Natu ral History of Southwestern Deserts (B165) during spring break (March 21- 30). The cost of the trip is $220 and includes travel expenses, lodging and most of the food. Clackamas has been offering this course for about 25 years. John Snively, Life/Physical Science instruc- tor, andJenniferPorter, biology instruc- tor, will head this year’s course. The class will also in clude two or three guest speakers. Both in structors have cho sen Death Valley because of what you can learn from a desert. ‘Deserts are incredible places,” said Porter. “There are no plants to cover up the rocks and no soil, so you get to see rocks that have been folded and rocks that have been stretched. What’s great for biology is that Death Val ley is such a harsh place that if anything can survive they have got to be incred ibly adapted to that envi ronment. You can see any thing from coyotes, ro dents, bighorn sheep, in sects and plants,” said Porter. “It is really intense; it’s 10 days of learning from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Most students come back and say they have learned more in those 10 days than in their entire college career,” he added. There is some fun involved too. Hikes include Golden Canyon, which is a two-hour hike (all downhill) and Marble Canyon, which has pol ished marble that is so smooth stu dents use it like a slide. Part of the course includes hunting for snakes, lizards and scorpions. If it’s been a wet year, the wild flowers should be in bloom. Each student will present topics, participate in activities, and compile journals of information while camping. A final exam is required for comple tion. Students must be enrolled at Clackamas, be 18 or older and have a verbal teacher recommendation. Stu dents will also have a small interview with either Porter or Snively. Thedead- line to sign up is still undetermined but will be coming up in 2-3 weeks. Cred its earned will be applied to the spring term. “We have students that go back year after year. At night we will be sitting around the campfire and stu dents will pop by from ten years ago. "It’s great camaraderie. When you get dope it’s like family. We’ve had people find their husbands and wives. We’ve had it all,” laughed Porto-. Look out for alternative media sources JESSE GURZYNSKI Staff Writer In Portland there are several media sources that cater to points of view that are largely or wholly disregarded by the mainstream media. I will briefly tell you here of three of them: the Portland Alliance newspa per, Portland Street Roots newspaper, and KBOO radio station. The Alliance comes out monthly, serving as an outlet for viewpoints not found in the mainstream media. It was origi- rially part of a larger organiza tion, the purpose of which was to create an alternative infor mation coalition. While the larger project dissolved, the newspaper remained and has been published for 21 years now. Operated by a board of direc tors made up of writers and ac tivists, the Alliance likes to choose for board members people who are closely con nected with the community. “We’re organized as a non profit corporation, the North west Alliance for Alternative Media, the sole purpose of which is the publishing of the newspa per,” said Alliance Editor Dave Mazza. “The Alliance serves a very important niche, that’s why we’ve been around for 21 years.” Another alternative newspa per is Portland Street Roots, which gives the homeless a voice. About 95 percent of the writing in Street Roots is by homeless people, according to Dale Hughes, a member of the newspaper’s board of directors and a staff writer. Street Roots was started three years ago as the Burnside Cadillac so that disenfranchised people could have their thoughts and feelings published. Street Roots also features the Rose City Resource, a listing of various services that are useful to poor and homeless people. This shows homeless people where they can turn for help, which is especially important for the newly homeless who are likely con fused and lost. Hughes said that, “becoming homeless, that can happen instantaneously.” Street Roots’ mission state ment is the following: “We ad vocate for the homeless, pas sionately striving for justice, equality, and freedom. Through a voice that can be heard, we raise social awareness, build community, and create unique career and income opportuni ties to help the homeless help themselves.” KBOO 90.7 FM is a locally owned and operated, listener- supported community radio station. Started in 1968, KBOO serves communities that would be otherwise underrepresented in radio broadcasts. It features many different musical styles, as well as progressive news programming. “There’s some thing for almost everyone,” said KBOO’s Bill McKibben. Unlike public broadcasting, KBOO is mostly locally pro duced programming and so is more directly related to the community. It is also more democratically operated than public broadcasting: KBOO members vote for the members of the board of directors, and committee meetings are open to the public. “I think if anyone turns on the five o’clock tube, they’ll quickly figure out that there’s a prob lem,” said Mazza. “The news doesn’t, cover the real stories.” Mazza also spoke on the idea of objective journalism. “One of the sort of hallowed traditions in journalism is that journalists should be objective, and that newspapers like The Oregonian are objective. In reality, they’re advocacy journalists just like we are; they’re advocating the sta tus quo. Reaily, all newspapers are advocacy journalists. We’re honest about it, they’re not.”
