6B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2021
COFFEE BREAK
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Two skiers defy death
in Yosemite descent
‘Helpful’ husband is caught
twice with younger women
YOSEMITE NATIONAL
PARK, Calif. — Two skiers
navigated a thin layer of snow
with no margin for error down
the precipitous shoulder of Half
Dome in Yosemite National
Park and alternately skied and
rappelled back to the valley
fl oor in a daring feat.
Jason Torlano, 45, and Zach
Milligan, 40, completed the
descent in fi ve hours Feb. 21 by
carving their way in crusty snow
and using ropes to rappel sev-
eral sections of bare rock known
as the “death slabs” beneath the
iconic face of Half Dome, the
Fresno Bee reported Feb. 25.
Snowboarder Jim Zellers
is believed to be the fi rst to
descend the 800-foot upper
section on the shoulder of the
dome in 2000. But no one is
known to have attempted the
entire 4,800-foot descent from
peak to valley.
Torlano said he had been
dreaming about skiing the
dome since his family moved to
Yosemite when he was 5. He fi rst
climbed Half Dome as a youngster,
clinging to the same cables tens of
thousands of visitors do every year
to ascend the fi nal steep pitch up
the rounded side of the polished
granite feature. He advanced to
become one of an elite group of
climbers to scale the sheer granite
DEAR ABBY: I have been mar-
ried for 26 years. Five years ago,
my husband gave a young lady
$5,000 through credit card charges
over a six-month period. We are not
wealthy. When I found the charges
in our credit report, he took a
second job to pay it off.
I don’t think their
relationship was
sexual because he
is impotent. It was
hurtful. While he was
taking this young lady
shopping, he told me
he was at work.
Recently, I (accidentally) caught
him going to another young lady’s
apartment to help her with things
like hanging a TV. I don’t care if
he helps people. What I DO care
about is his sneaking around to do
it. I have tried talking to him about
why he feels he needs to sneak. He
has no answer. What makes men
sneak?
— DECEIVED IN KENTUCKY
DEAR DECEIVED: Your hus-
band may fear your disapproval of
his relationships — however pla-
tonic they may be — with these
younger women. What makes
people of both genders sneak, by the
way, is usually a sense of guilt.
DEAR ABBY: My boyfriend, my
33-year-old son, his girlfriend and
their 4-year-old son all live with
me. They are expecting their second
child. I own the home and pay all
Jason Torlano via AP
Jason Torlano poses with his friend, Zach Milligan, right, on Half
Dome in Yosemite National Park, California, on Feb. 21.
face using ropes only to catch his
fall at least a dozen times. He later
became a ranger in the park.
“It’s just always been there,”
Torlano told the San Francisco
Chronicle. “I’ve been attracted
to Half Dome for as long as I
can remember.”
After also serving a stint in
the U.S. Army, he settled down
with his wife and children in a
community near Yosemite. He
specializes in using ropes to
work in high-altitude and dan-
gerous settings.
He said he tried to ski down
Half Dome each of the past
three years, but called it off
after fi nding unsuitable snow.
This year, an early February
storm fi lled Yosemite with
fresh powder, including about
2-3 inches of snow at the peak
of Half Dome.
He rented a friend’s small
plane Feb. 19 to study the snow
conditions and possible route
before calling Milligan, a rock
climbing buddy, to join him.
Milligan said he initially
planned to only fi lm Torlano
skiing, but decided to make his
own descent on skis. He said
things turned dangerous when
he skied over part of one of the
cables and lost control before he
used an ice ax to stop his slide
and was able to right himself.
“I was just trying to stay in
control and stay alive,” Milligan
said. “You’re on that spine and
you don’t have a lot of room for
error.”
— Associated Press
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Astoria
Longview
32/49
30/57
33/58
Condon
33/59
35/58
33/57
THU
FRI
SAT
Partly cloudy
Times of sun
and clouds
Mostly sunny
Partly sunny
Showers
possible
25 45 24
50 29
51 32
49 29
Eugene
5
5
4
35/58
50 36
49 37
50 34
5
5
4
31 47 28
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
3
3
27 50 24
Comfort Index™
5
52 35
47 35
8
7
3
7
ALMANAC
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Sunday
Low Sunday
High: 91°
McAllen, Texas
Low: -22°
West Yellowstone, Mont.
Wettest: 5.41”
Bowling Green, Ky.
39°
28°
40°
22°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
0.00
0.58
0.58
0.95
1.38
0.00
3.99
1.14
5.03
2.77
Trace
7.62
2.33
11.93
5.50
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION WEDNESDAY
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
40%
SSE at 7 to 14 mph
3.1
0.08
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Monday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
10% of capacity
52% of capacity
51% of capacity
54% of capacity
41% of capacity
99% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Sunday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
2180 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
59 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
25 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
222 cfs
Minam River at Minam
174 cfs
Powder River near Richland
80 cfs
Record high temperatures were set across
the East on March 2, 1991. Pittsburgh
and Erie, Pa., rose to 74 and 70 degrees,
respectively. Albany, N.Y., reached 65, and
Charleston, W.Va., jumped to 81 degrees.
SUN & MOON
TUE.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
WED.
6:29 a.m. 6:27 a.m.
5:41 p.m. 5:42 p.m.
10:10 p.m. 11:29 p.m.
8:28 a.m. 8:54 a.m.
MOON PHASES
Last
Mar 5
New
First
Mar 13
Mar 21
Full
Mar 28
Burns
Silver Lake
Jordan Valley
24/49
Frenchglen
Paisley
28/57
26/58
Diamond
25/57
Klamath Falls
22/60
Lakeview
21/53
McDermitt
Shown is Wednesday’s weather. Temperatures are Tuesday night’s lows and Wednesday’s highs.
Hi/Lo/W
49/36/pc
61/30/s
55/30/s
53/39/s
52/23/s
50/35/pc
57/33/pc
45/22/s
47/25/pc
58/36/pc
65/33/s
57/33/pc
52/28/pc
53/27/pc
49/27/pc
62/32/s
60/23/s
53/24/s
Hi/Lo/W
55/46/r
61/37/pc
57/34/s
52/46/c
56/26/s
57/45/pc
61/40/pc
46/21/s
49/29/s
62/41/pc
67/41/s
60/37/pc
55/36/s
55/31/s
50/33/s
61/37/pc
56/33/s
52/27/s
24/49
RECREATION FORECAST WEDNESDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
25/60
25/58
Fields
34/66
THU.
Grand View
Arock
26/54
23/54
Medford
WED.
Boise
28/55
36/70
Brookings
Juntura
25/48
23/57
Chiloquin
37/53
Ontario
27/51
21/52
25/52
37/63
Grants Pass
Huntington
22/48
Brothers
Beaver Marsh
19/45
28/51
Seneca
20/52
Roseburg
36/61
Roseburg
Burns
Astoria
WEATHER HISTORY
28/53
30/61
Oakridge
Coos Bay
OREGON
High: 61°
Low: 11°
Wettest: 0.01”
26/62
33/64
36/50
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
Sunday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
Elkton
SUNDAY EXTREMES
40°
17°
Sisters
Council
25/45
John Day
Bend
Powers
27/48
25/46
26/63
Florence
37/50
Halfway
Granite
Baker City
Redmond
35/48
Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels
very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable.
Monument
28/59
33/57
Newport
Enterprise
27/50
31/47
32/60
34/57
Corvallis
36/60
51 33
27/47
La Grande
31/56
28/61
Idanha
Salem
WED
La Grande
Elgin
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
34/56
36/59
33/62
TONIGHT
3
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Hood River
Vancouver
32/59
Baker
3175 Pocahontas Rd.
Walla Walla
31/62
Maupin
2
Enterprise
601 Medical Parkway
Kennewick
32/58
St. Helens
TIllamook
Comfort Index™
Foot and Ankle Surgeon
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
33/54
Baker City
Travis T. Hampton, D.P.M.
La Grande
1408 N Hall Street
www.GVfoot.com
weather
New Name.
Same Great Team.
Same Exceptional
Service.
Aching Feet?
541-963-0265
888-843-9090
| Go to AccuWeather.com
the bills (utilities, phone, food, etc.).
The problem is, my kids don’t like
my boyfriend. His grandkids call me
Grandma, so I would like my grand-
kids to call him Grandpa. My son
and his girlfriend won’t allow their
son to do it. They insist on calling
him by his fi rst name.
I asked for a com-
promise and to call
him Uncle. They
DEAR
refuse and say he
didn’t “earn” that
ABBY
name. I said it’s just
teaching the chil-
dren to respect their elders. When
I grew up and when I raised my
son, we called older people Aunty
and Uncle. I’m not sure what to
do because we all live in the same
house, and I would like all of us to
get along.
— WISHING FOR RESPECT IN
HAWAII
DEAR WISHING: You may
have taught your son to respect his
elders when he was growing up,
but it appears he has had a serious
memory lapse. Shame on him.
Because you foot all of the bills
for the roof over his and his family’s
heads as well as the food in their
mouths, remind him that you are the
head of that household, and you will
not have anyone with whom you are
involved disrespected. As it stands,
you and your boyfriend are being
disrespected, so as head of the
household, please assert yourself.
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
WED.
THU.
Hi/Lo/W
56/34/pc
58/33/pc
46/26/pc
66/33/s
48/38/pc
55/34/pc
51/28/pc
58/31/s
62/32/s
58/37/pc
61/36/pc
62/28/s
63/37/pc
57/35/pc
53/29/pc
59/35/s
52/24/pc
59/35/pc
Hi/Lo/W
59/36/s
59/42/pc
48/34/s
66/41/s
53/45/r
58/41/r
54/31/s
59/37/pc
64/46/s
61/43/pc
59/44/pc
63/38/pc
64/42/pc
59/42/pc
55/35/pc
61/39/pc
54/36/s
58/43/s
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Partly sunny
Partly sunny
32
23
47
22
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Periods of sun
Periods of sun
39
29
49
28
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Periods of sun
Mostly sunny
36
22
45
24
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Periods of sun
Mostly sunny
49
27
63
33
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Periods of sun
Periods of sun
45
24
47
28
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