This is a very sad thing to read. 35 is way too soon. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones, who must bear this loss.


Originally Posted by PortlandDawg
I use to hike in to Punchbowl Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. There’s a few great cliff jumping areas. One of the hardest parts about standing on a 30’+ cliff wasn’t the jump or the fall, it was knowing you were about to hit icy water. That took psyching yourself up. You’d imagine your water landing and plot you’re out before making a leap.


Topaz Lake, Little Mountain Lake, Little Superior Lake.
Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario, CA
Coldest water I've ever swum.

Topaz had cliffs for diving. The other two had gentle limestone slopes to neck-high water. I was never able to decide which was worse- suffering slowly, or getting it over with all at once-

I'd scoped out that first Topaz Lake dive point for a good 10 minutes before I took the plunge, so I'd already been in the water. Brutally cold, after a 4-hr full-pack hike. After the recon, it was another 6-minute rock scramble back up to the launch point. In the dead of Summer. Upper 80's, or so/ 80% humidity. So yeah- I was sweating again when I climbed back out onto that promontory. We're talking about an instantaneous 30° drop in the body's ambient temperature environment. We really aren't built to take much of that.

I was... you guessed it- 35 when I took that 14-day journey. Peak physical condition. And those dives were some of the most bracing experiences I ever had.

https://mapio.net/images-p/25909063.jpg

We jumped from the places where you see white rock meeting blue water.
My Wife was with me, every step/every leap of the way. She did s# with me during that fortnight that would break at least half the posters on this website.
Best birthday present I ever had.

Best 'private' swimming hole on Planet Earth.

[Linked Image from web.archive.org]