PENINSULA DAILY NEWS 75 cents
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
May 25-26, 2012
YOUR FRIDAY/SATURDAY WEEKEND PLANNER OUTDOORS:
FESTIVAL:
OUTLOOK:
MUSIC:
Mostly sunny, a few clouds
Juan de Fuca Fest, all weekend long
Halibut Derby starts Saturday
Meet Allen Stone, R&B phenom
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PENINSULA SPOTLIGHT
Almost at the top of the world “The best thing for me is to stay calm right now,� Roberts said from her Port Townsend home. “We don’t know when we’ll hear from him, so all we can do is wait.� BY CHARLIE BERMANT Roberts said she didn’t know PENINSULA DAILY NEWS exactly when the four-member PORT TOWNSEND — expedition would take another Dianne Roberts hasn’t been getshot at the summit — at 29,029 ting much sleep this week, as her feet, the tallest in the world — son, Leif Whittaker, climbs Mount but expected it would be in the Everest for the second time. next few days.
Peninsula man reportedly days from Everest peak
Whittaker, 27, first climbed Everest in May 2010, following in the footsteps of his father, Jim Whittaker, who in 1963 was the first American to reach the summit. Roberts said she expected her son would use a satellite phone to call home after he returned from the summit. “We don’t get any inside information,� Roberts said. “We are like everyone else: We find out what’s happening
from the blog.� Leif Whittaker’s expedition blog is available at http:// tinyurl.com/everestblog. The most recent entry, dated Thursday, was transcribed from a phone call from expedition leader Dave Hahn. “We are just about at 8,000 meters [26,246 feet],� he said. “I hope you can hear me. The winds are beating the stuffing out of our tent fabric right now.� TURN
TO
Leif Whittaker
CLIMB/A9 Brutal winds reported
It’s the season for great outdoors Memorial weekend opens rush to Peninsula campsites BY ARWYN RICE
ALSO . . .
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
As campers begin to fill parks this Memorial Day weekend, the North Olympic Peninsula offers a variety of experiences to those who want to get away from it all. Peninsula campgrounds have it all: seaside, forest or mountains — with options to stay in an RV or tent, and hike-in, bikein or boat-in sites. Campers can choose among county parks and campsites within Olympic National Forest and the nearly million acres of Olympic National Park.
Clallam County parks Clallam County operates two parks with campgrounds: Salt Creek Recreation Area and Dungeness Recreation Area.
â– Peninsula camp hosts feted by U.S. Forest Service/A4
“Get out early to get sites,� said Bruce Giddens, county parks and fair supervisor. Half of the campsites can be reserved, and the other half are first-come, first-served, Giddens said. On Thursday, reserved campsites were full, and campers were already in some of the other sites. Campers who don’t get a site by noon have slim chances of getting a place, Giddens said. Salt Creek Recreation Area is on Camp Hayden Road off state KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS Highway 112 about 10 miles Tammie Hawkins sits by a campfire with dog Spigot as Susan Lee cooks breakfast west of Port Angeles.
Thursday at Altair Campground in the Elwha Valley of Olympic National Park. The
TURN
TO
CAMPING/A4 Port Angeles women staked out their campsite early.
Makah leader disappointed by restart to whaling study BY PAUL GOTTLIEB PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
NEAH BAY — The federal government’s announcement this week that it stopped a 7-year-old draft environmental study on the impact of Makah tribal whaling and will write a new impact statement in light of “substantial new scientific information� was a letdown for Tribal Chairman Micah McCarty. But it wasn’t surprising, he said Thursday. “It’s disappointing,� McCarty said. “We pretty much knew what the options were and weren’t surprised,� he said. “Timelines are pretty much dictated by how much the [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] can navigate all this,� McCarty added. Tribal whalers last legally killed a whale in 1999. In 2000, court cases put the
hunts on hold indefinitely. “I don’t know how many times we’ve said, ‘maybe next year, maybe the next 18 months,’ � McCarty said. NOAA an-nounced Monday that the draft environmental study would be terminated so new information could be incorporated. The new information is that the gray whales the tribe wants to hunt off the Washington coast may need to be managed separately from the overall population of about 20,000 gray whales that migrate up and down the West Coast. That’s based on a study by Canadian scientists Tim Frasier and Jim Darling that says a separate, genetically distinct Pacific Coast Feeding Group, or PCFG, of about 200 whales regularly feeds in areas that include waters between northern California and southeastern Alaska during the
summer and fall, NOAA spokesman Brian Gorman said Friday. Additions also will include information from a separate, ongoing NOAA McCarty review of gray whale behavior that was prompted by the Canadian study and will be published in early fall, Gorman said.
New information “The possibility of taking a PCFG whale cannot be eliminated,� the NOAA study said, adding that the Makah tribe has proposed whaling restrictions ELAINE THOMPSON/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS “that are designed to reduce the Three Makah tribal members express joy as the carcass probability of killing a PCFG of a gray whale is towed to shore in Neah Bay on May 17, whale.� 1999, ending the tribe’s first successful whale hunt in TURN TO WHALING/A4 more than seven decades.
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