What did Harmsen Do For The Sultan River Landslide?

Sultan River Landslide Topographic Mapping

Our Task: Topo a slide area on the Sultan River, located approximately 8 miles north of the town of Sultan.

Access to the job site was somewhat difficult due to a very steep slope leading down to the river and a stretch of about 200 feet along the river with no shoreline. We had to work with just vertical rock wall, between the access point and the slide area.

The steep slope was negotiated by our intrepid survey crew through a series of maneuvers charitably described as “load up as much equipment as you could carry, grip wet rope, lose grip on rope, apply death grip to rope, stop uncontrolled slide down the hill, repeat maneuver.

The section of river with no shoreline to walk on was traversed by means of an excellent river craft purchased by our Project Manager at Fred Meyer® for the princely sum of $8.00 or $9.00 with assurances that said craft had, on numerous occasions, made successful voyages across very large swimming pools and was surely up to the task of ferrying 3 surveyors and their equipment on this pristine and law abiding creek.

Despite numerous hardships including torrential rain (really), and the not inconsiderable 1/8th of a mile trek through uncharted, well rarely trod on, well, no one showed up while we were there, ...anyway, the topo was finally completed and we all returned safely, limbs, dignity and data in tact.

Chris Tietje, Survey Party Chief

(Below you'll see the landslide and the survey crew.)