'Round and about Coloradoo

All from the Post.

Moron shoots park ranger in Utah canyon country:

MOAB, UTAH — Officers searching for a gunman in a rugged Utah canyon Saturday were believed to be closing in on the suspect accused of shooting and critically wounding a park ranger, authorities said.

Grand County Sheriff James Nyland said officers were able to pickup the man's footprints and found his rifle and backpack along the Colorado River, about 22 miles southwest of Moab.

Nobody knows what happened yet. The officer is in critical but stable condition, which usually means he'll be okay, and they found the suspect's car.

Still, I think the cops should BOLO Aron Ralston's hand.

Remember how the Colorado ski industry was going to be killed by global warming? For a while you couldn't line your bird cage without seeing a piece on how the mountains would no longer get snow once AGW really got going. Oh, wait. They're still doing it. February 2, 2010: "Colorado groups says climate change endangers skiing." (No link because it's already down the memory hole. Anyway, a story today:

Big storm could disrupt mountain holiday travel

A huge snowstorm will dump up to 4 feet of snow on south-facing slopes in the San Juans this week but shouldn't impact Thanksgiving commutes across the Denver area.

Or this, also teased on the front page:

Early storms lift skier, industry hopes as snow proves deep and powdery

COPPER MOUNTAIN — Snowstorms measured in feet. Powder. Avalanches. Bustling villages. A series of bountiful storms has catapulted Colorado's ski hills deep into winter. For many hills, this is the best opening in the past decade.

Actually, the skiing has been excellent for the past three or four or five years.

Darwin Award honorable mention:

Loveland beekeeper stung by his own shotgun booby trap

A Loveland beekeeper fell victim to his own sting and was wounded by a booby trap he set to protect his hive from a bear.

Police said John Frost, 68, suffered injuries to his left hand and left lower leg after an improvised shotgun booby trap he made went off Nov. 4. . . .

He lied about it, badly:

The [police] report said that his injuries did not appear to match his story and that Erbelding [Frost's girlfriend] said she never saw Frost with a shotgun.

Deputies said Frost gave them permission to investigate his property.

According to the report, police followed a trail of blood droplets which led them to a "suspicious-looking box" with a pipe protruding from it near the beehive.

Deputy Andrew Weber, who filed the report, said he recognized the box as a booby-trap shotgun. The report said that the pipe appeared to be attached to a tripwire. Upon dismantling the device, police reported finding one spent shotgun shell.

According to the report, a hospital staff member became suspicious when he asked Erbelding what happened and Frost allegedly said: "Shut up, we talked about this." . . .

Why?

Parents arrive from Australia as investigators confirm identity of dead twin

As officials confirmed the identity of a twin killed in a suicide pact, the women's parents arrived from Australia to be with their wounded daughter,

The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office on Friday said Kristin A. Hermeler, 29, was the woman who died Monday at the Family Shooting Center at Cherry Creek State Park.

Family Shooting Center. Well . . . But again, why?

Perea [a cop] addressed media reports that a link to the 1999 Columbine killings was found among the women's possessions. He said the link consisted only of a photocopy of a Time magazine cover, from May 3, 1999, that depicted shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.

"There were no other clippings or documents, nothing else on Columbine," Perea said.

Candice denied any interest in the case, and there was no other evidence to suggest a link, Perea said.

When investigators asked Candice about the magazine cover, Perea said, Candice replied: "I don't give a (expletive). It happened a long time ago."

Weird. If Caz checks in maybe she can shed a little light on the case. Don't think the story says it, but I think the twins were from Melbourne.

Update: Post this Sunday A.M.:

Twins in suicide pact had contact with Columbine survivor in 1999

The Hermeler twins' interest in Columbine High School grew from their experience as victims of bullying, as suggested by their phone calls and 11-year-old letters to a Columbine survivor.

Kristin Hermeler, the 29-year-old sister who committed suicide Monday at an Arapahoe County gun range, called herself "someone who has been rejected, victimized and ostracized" in a letter to Columbine survivor Brooks Brown. . . .

Update II: Commenter "Hinckley" notes another twin suicide pact, in California last month. Let's not start a fad, guys. (Though isn't this how they ended the Patty Duke show in the 60s?)