Out & About

OUTGATHER

Mushroomers flock to charred earth

Crowds of morel mushroom pickers this month are likely to follow the smoke and flames of last summer’s forest fires to the Plains and Seeley Lake areas, and Lolo National Forest officials are outlining commercial and personal-use permit areas, setting fees and beefing up law enforcement on forest roads and campgrounds.

Permit info: www.fs.fed.us/r1/lolo.

Meanwhile the crowd is expected to be lower in the Methow Valley and Tonasket Ranger districts two years after the Tripod fire burned 175,000 acres. Mushroom production peaks in the first season after fires but gradually dwindles in following years.

Mushroom ID: Western Montana

Mycological Association, www.fungaljungal.org.

OUTCLIMB

Eiger climbers meet

At the recent opening of “The Alps,” at the Riverfront Park IMAX, the film’s protagonist, John Harlin III, met afterward for beers with the Spokane climbers who came between him and his father.

In 1974, John Roskelley and Chris Kopczynski were the first Americans to climb the North Face of the Eiger after Harlin’s father became the first American to make the climb in 1962 and then fell to his death on a second attempt in 1966.

Harlin III was shocked to learn the two Spokane climbers, then in their mid-20s, had traversed one of the deadliest sections of the route without the aid of fixed ropes routinely maintained in that area after another climbing tragedy.

“We didn’t have much choice,” Kopczynski said. “The ropes were frayed and we really couldn’t turn back at that point.”

Harlin III said most of his treacherous 2005 Eiger climb had to be re-enacted for the benefit of the massive IMAX camera.

Roskelley and Kopczynski noticed immediately from the amount of snow in the film that while the climb was made in September, most of the footage was captured in re-shoots made the following spring.

OUTDO

Raft-guiding primer

What: Rafting Guide School.

When: Saturdays and Sundays May 17-June 8.

Details: Get training required of whitewater rafting guides during six Spokane-area sessions that cover reading whitewater, rigging and maneuvering boats, repairing equipment and cooking plus safety and rescue skills.

Cost: $385.

Preregister: Spokane Parks and Recreation, 625-6200; www.spokaneparks.org.

OUTLOOK

Best fishing times

Lunar tables from the U.S. Naval Observatory. Be fishing at least one hour before and one hour after peak times. Applies to all time zones.

Through April 20

Today: 8:30 p.m., 8:55 a.m.

Monday: 9:20 p.m., 9:40 a.m.

Tuesday: 10:05 p.m., 10:25 a.m.

Wednesday: 10:45 p.m., 11:05 a.m.

Thursday: 11:30 p.m., 11:50 a.m.

Friday: – 12:10 a.m.

Saturday: 12:30 p.m. –

Next Sunday: 12:50 a.m., 1:10 p.m.

See the Hunting-Fishing Report

every Friday in Sports