SHUMBA
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Ah comon, put it in sport mode and shame that Hog
SHUMBA
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The anything thread.
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SHUMBA
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Dr Ratbagg
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At 8:32am on May 18, 1980, David Johnston's final words came through on the radio transmitter: "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!".
Dr Ratbagg
Well-Known Member
The story behind that photo of the Pinto in front of the Mt. St. Helens eruption
A towering plume of ash rises in the distance of the photo, swirling with menace and threat, lightning arcing within it. As if to accent the peril, the canyon of trees that frame the gray clouds themselves have gone dark toward their tops, occluded by unseen looming clouds of ash. One shaft of morning light still reaches the lower branches of the trees, splashing over a cut of greenery and the least probable thing in the photo: a red Ford Pinto with a blue dirt bike hitched to its bumper, angled across a forest road.
Even if you haven’t been up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory near Mt. St. Helens, where one of the most puzzling photos of the volcano’s May 1980 eruption is prominently displayed, you’ve no doubt seen the photo circulating on the Internet, stripped of all context save for the date and location. You’ve also no doubt wondered who took the photo, what were they doing up there in the first place, and whether they made it out alive. We did too, so we set out to dig for what answers we could. Some came easy; others not so much.
To begin with, pretty much all of the Pacific Northwest knew that Mt. St. Helens was about to erupt. Settlers in the area saw it erupt in the mid-19th century, and by early 1980, seismologists were monitoring a massive bulge on the volcano’s north slope. Authorities had begun evacuating area residents from their homes as a precaution, though they couldn’t keep campers from ringing the base of the volcano, especially over a sunny mid-May weekend.
Richard “Dick” Lasher spent that Saturday night packing some gear figuring he’d head out first thing in the morning to get a look at the mountain before it blew. His plan involved hitching his Yamaha IT enduro bike to the back of his Pinto, driving up to Spirit Lake, then exploring the area via dirt forest roads on the bike. He’d leave before dawn and arrive at the lake right at daybreak.
Tired from packing, Lasher slept in an hour or two past his planned departure time. He swore in telling the story many years later that sleeping in that morning saved his life. Based on the angle of the photo and the surrounding terrain, it appears Lasher drove down toward Spirit Lake from the north, likely dropping down from U.S. 12 and the town of Randle into the forest roads of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. He possibly made it as far south as Forest Road 26 by 8:32 that morning.
The time the volcano blew.
Had Lasher made it to Spirit Lake, he’d almost certainly have died. According to John P. Walsh’s description of the eruption, Spirit Lake “met the full impact of the volcano’s lateral blast. The sheer force of the blast lifted the lake out of its bed and propelled it about 85 stories into the air to splash onto adjacent mountain slopes.”
Had Lasher made it even over the next ridge, he’d almost certainly have died. According to Cooper’s telling of the story, “Luckily for him, and he did not realize until later just how lucky, he was on the opposite side of that ridge in front, because the entire forest was flattened from the ridge down, and he was in the lee side and protected from most of the blast.”
He did, however, realize that he had to get out of there in a hurry. Though the volcano blew out a pyroclastic flow almost due north and Lasher found himself more northeast of the blast, one map shows that temperatures near where Lasher found himself rose to 680 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the same map, most of the 57 people who died that day were positioned to the north or northwest of the volcano, but at least four of them were in Lasher’s vicinity.
Cooper continues:
So, yes, the photographer behind that mystery photograph did survive to see it widely disseminated. Whatever became of the Pinto and the Yamaha, however, we don’t know, so if you have a red Pinto hatchback with a lot of volcanic ash in the seams, get in touch with us.
A towering plume of ash rises in the distance of the photo, swirling with menace and threat, lightning arcing within it. As if to accent the peril, the canyon of trees that frame the gray clouds themselves have gone dark toward their tops, occluded by unseen looming clouds of ash. One shaft of morning light still reaches the lower branches of the trees, splashing over a cut of greenery and the least probable thing in the photo: a red Ford Pinto with a blue dirt bike hitched to its bumper, angled across a forest road.
Even if you haven’t been up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory near Mt. St. Helens, where one of the most puzzling photos of the volcano’s May 1980 eruption is prominently displayed, you’ve no doubt seen the photo circulating on the Internet, stripped of all context save for the date and location. You’ve also no doubt wondered who took the photo, what were they doing up there in the first place, and whether they made it out alive. We did too, so we set out to dig for what answers we could. Some came easy; others not so much.
To begin with, pretty much all of the Pacific Northwest knew that Mt. St. Helens was about to erupt. Settlers in the area saw it erupt in the mid-19th century, and by early 1980, seismologists were monitoring a massive bulge on the volcano’s north slope. Authorities had begun evacuating area residents from their homes as a precaution, though they couldn’t keep campers from ringing the base of the volcano, especially over a sunny mid-May weekend.
Richard “Dick” Lasher spent that Saturday night packing some gear figuring he’d head out first thing in the morning to get a look at the mountain before it blew. His plan involved hitching his Yamaha IT enduro bike to the back of his Pinto, driving up to Spirit Lake, then exploring the area via dirt forest roads on the bike. He’d leave before dawn and arrive at the lake right at daybreak.
Tired from packing, Lasher slept in an hour or two past his planned departure time. He swore in telling the story many years later that sleeping in that morning saved his life. Based on the angle of the photo and the surrounding terrain, it appears Lasher drove down toward Spirit Lake from the north, likely dropping down from U.S. 12 and the town of Randle into the forest roads of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. He possibly made it as far south as Forest Road 26 by 8:32 that morning.
The time the volcano blew.
Had Lasher made it to Spirit Lake, he’d almost certainly have died. According to John P. Walsh’s description of the eruption, Spirit Lake “met the full impact of the volcano’s lateral blast. The sheer force of the blast lifted the lake out of its bed and propelled it about 85 stories into the air to splash onto adjacent mountain slopes.”
Had Lasher made it even over the next ridge, he’d almost certainly have died. According to Cooper’s telling of the story, “Luckily for him, and he did not realize until later just how lucky, he was on the opposite side of that ridge in front, because the entire forest was flattened from the ridge down, and he was in the lee side and protected from most of the blast.”
He did, however, realize that he had to get out of there in a hurry. Though the volcano blew out a pyroclastic flow almost due north and Lasher found himself more northeast of the blast, one map shows that temperatures near where Lasher found himself rose to 680 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the same map, most of the 57 people who died that day were positioned to the north or northwest of the volcano, but at least four of them were in Lasher’s vicinity.
Cooper continues:
(Cooper or Lasher may have conflated this part of the story with the fate of Robert Landsberg, a newspaper photographer who, upon realizing he wouldn’t be able to escape the eruption after photographing it, carefully rewound his film, packed away his camera gear, and laid over the gear to preserve his shots.)
That, however, wasn’t the end of Lasher’s story.
Some of those photos, according to Cooper and fellow former co-worker Steven Firth, focused on those who didn’t make it out alive and on the automotive wreckage they left behind. Both Cooper and Firth recalled Lasher showing them photos of burned-out vehicles with puddles of melted plastic underneath.
So, yes, the photographer behind that mystery photograph did survive to see it widely disseminated. Whatever became of the Pinto and the Yamaha, however, we don’t know, so if you have a red Pinto hatchback with a lot of volcanic ash in the seams, get in touch with us.
Dr Ratbagg
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Dirt_Dad
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Remember it well. Stunning it was 41 years ago. I really am getting old.
Yup, I was a senior in high school in Richland Washington. My car was covered in ash. Everybody just rinsed it off. . . . and wondered why their paint didn't look too good. Me, being me, washed my car correctly. . . . no paint issues.
RIVA
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Dr Ratbagg
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Ammo, and lumber.
Dr Ratbagg
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mate bought a 1 owner 1952 ford pop wow that was a intersting drive. lol
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PhilPhilippines
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My Grandad had one. Nice to see it's not been rodded..
~TABASCO~
RIDE ON ADV is what I do !
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I guess only in the future, will we look at back at the past and understand how stupid we were !
Popular Science 63' "teaching us" LOL
Popular Science 63' "teaching us" LOL
tallpaul
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Where do you think crude oil comes from? Dinosaurs have been pouring that stuff in the ground for millions of years before we "invented" it...
EricV
Riding, farkling, riding...
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Every couple of generations looks back and thinks how limited the knowledge of the past was. Then another generation goes by and they start to realize some of those 'crude' things had merit beyond what they previously realized.
Doctors are a great example. The current generation likes to think they know a lot. Still don't have a clue why we age or die. Can't cure much, only toss random, semi focused treatments at it and hope it works and rarely has a clue why you got sick to begin with. If my mechanic did that, I'd go to someone that actually understood the vehicle, instead of throwing parts at it and hoping it would fix the problem.
Doctors are a great example. The current generation likes to think they know a lot. Still don't have a clue why we age or die. Can't cure much, only toss random, semi focused treatments at it and hope it works and rarely has a clue why you got sick to begin with. If my mechanic did that, I'd go to someone that actually understood the vehicle, instead of throwing parts at it and hoping it would fix the problem.
RIVA
Well-Known Member
Most Mechanics can fix their mistakes given the chance. On the other hand Doctors bury theirs.
Is that why we find the clay pots, were they what the dinosaurs used to pour the oil ?