High Rock Angle - Longer falling time when tripped, thus more time for quarry to react and possibly escape. - Smaller percentage of quarry’s body likely to be under rock. - More tenuous, unstable contact between rock and lever. - Taller fencing materials required. + Bait stick is shorter, choice and spine of suitable materials is broader. + Friction contact between bait stick and rock is potentially easier to achieve. Post positioned under rock - When tripped, rock can begin its fall but actually land atop lever and post (which did not receive sufficient speed or force to flip them out of the way) and remain upright. - Tripped rock can begin to flip lever and post away but, because of its high angle and thus sluggish start, only knocks them over, often resulting in base of post remaining under front of rock thus blocking its complete fall. Note: I used this style of deadfall set for several years with adequate success, but I also experienced the above two problems occurring more times than I can remember. Diagonal “figure 4” lever position - Requires a carved no-slip coupling between top of post and underside of lever. - As mentioned above, high rock angle in conjunction with diagonal lever position creates less stable, less surface contact between lever and rock. + Cordage does not tend to slide up post.
Linda Jamison with Larry Dean Olsen and Zeke Sanchez
Philosophy of a Caveman
“We just go out there and love the kids. The more you love them, the faster they come around. We live with them, experience everything with them. A student is never asked to do anything an instructor isn’t already doing. ”
Many people in our country have faced survival situations in the past. It seems certain that there will be more and perhaps even greater challenges to our way of life in the future. Those who possess the qualities of life most needed for survival will accept its rigors with the energy necessary to lead meaningful and productive lives no matter how many of our modern conveniences are lost to us and no matter how basic our existence becomes. They will know the odds, realize the blessings of simply living rather than groping for comforts and ease. They will possess the spiritual power necessary to raise themselves out of poverty, be it mental or physical, and lead a standard of life full of more meaning than gadgets.
Two such men are Larry Dean Olsen and Ezekiel (Zeke-Good Buffalo Eagle) Sanchez.
Larry Olsen, author of the best-selling book Outdoor Survival Skills, originated the award-winning “480” thirty-day survival trek at Brigham Young University and has been a pioneer in instituting primitive survival courses as an effective rehabilitation program in the United States.
Zeke Sanchez was a BYU student when Larry’s program first started. His grades were faltering and he was dismissed because, in his words, “he paid more attention to the girls than the grades.” From his youth, Zeke had lived in the desert with his family, practicing “survival” skills as a part of everyday life. When he was given the chance to join Larry’s experimental program, he gladly enlisted. Because of his proficiency in outdoor skills, his leadership ability and compassion for others during the expedition, he was asked to join the program’s instructor team.
Larry and Zeke have been friends and trail companions for twenty-five years. They have endured the kinds of things that bind people together, like saving one another’s life. Today they share in the management of “Anasazi,” a youth rehabilitation program with headquarters in Mesa, Arizona. Anasazi’s instructors take troubled youth into the desert and teach them to live a stone-age existence for forty to fifty days. Both Larry and Zeke agree that many of the experiences shared on the trail have provided some of life’s greatest lessons.
Zeke tells of one such experience. “It was 1970, on a BYU program in southern Utah. I had just driven all day from California where we were doing some presentations and promotional things for the survival program, and that night, as I came in late, we had an instructor meeting. Some of the students were still coming into camp after repelling in the Circle Cliffs area. They had been out there all day trying to find their way down. It is quite a dry place to be, so some of them were in need of water. One particular girl, Beth Rasmussen, had a medical problem that she had overlooked on the health questionnaire, and so we were not aware of it. Anyway, someone shouted that a student had collapsed by the fire. By the time we got there, Beth’s heart had stopped and they were doing CPR, trying to revive her. We moved the crowd aside to give her some air, and by that time Mack Smith already had his hands on her head to give her a healing blessing, so we both laid our hands on her head and blessed her to recover.
“We didn’t have any backup vehicles on that trip and two of us decided we would go out and get one of the vehicles we had left in Boulder. I selected someone to go with me, and he was a big fellow so I knew if I didn’t make it, he would.
“His name was Val Snow, he was a ball player for the NY Mets. I was already tired from traveling all day and hardly getting any sleep, but we headed out on the Burr Trail at the Water Pocket Fold that night under the light of a full moon. It was up and down, up and down all night. And it was a long night.
“When we finally got to Deer Creek, we had to stop for water. As soon as I bent down, my legs cramped and I couldn’t move and I fell into the stream. Water was running into my nose. I couldn’t breath and I couldn’t get up. I never felt such pain. I was crippled up like a pretzel. Val lifted me out of the stream.
“He set me on the bank and tried to talk with me. I told him to go on without me, but he wouldn’t leave me. I was concerned about the girl and getting the vehicle because we didn’t know how she was at that point.
Larry Olsen, left, and Zeke (Good Buffalo Eagle) Sanchez have been trail partners since the early days of BYU’s “480” program (photos by Linda Jamison).
“At that time I was kind of ornery,” Zeke confided. “I’m not so ornery now. Anyway, I tried to get up and walk around a little and found that I could drag my feet some. So I decided that I would drag myself but when he saw how painful it was for me he put his arm around me and practically carried me all the way to Boulder. That was a long way.
“When we finally got to the vehicle, he had to lift me into it because my legs wouldn’t move. He drove all the way back. The sun hadn’t come up yet and I had him drop me off about a quarter of a mile back because I was embarrassed, you know, big macho Zeke. Like I said, I was ornery then. I didn’t want anyone to know I had been hurt. So pretty soon here comes Larry and he pampered me a little and they took care of me.