Students wearing Superman capes & tutus rescued from Mountain Road

[matcom]

<snip>

PASADENA, Calif. --Two dozen Caltech students wearing Superman capes, tutus and other odd attire as part of a hazing stunt were rescued after getting stranded on the Mount Wilson Toll Road.

Organizers of the California Institute of Technology initiation ritual said they didn't realize the road had been covered last year by a landslide.

"You've got to remember that common sense is not factored into the intelligence quotient," said Deputy Greg Gabriel, who leads the Altadena Search and Rescue team.

The annual Mount Wilson Night, when freshmen are initiated into the Page House dormitory at Caltech, started off as planned Monday night, Caltech sophomore Nick Goeden said Tuesday.

The group had a large dinner before dressing the freshmen in costumes and parading them throughout Pasadena. The young men and women were then taken to the Mount Wilson Observatory for the planned 10-mile descent down the road.

A quarter-mile from the bottom, the group got stranded in Eaton Canyon where the landslide blocked their path. Rescuers were called in at about 3 a.m.

The students didn't have flashlights, warm clothes or other important supplies, Gabriel said. But the deputy said they were equipped with "distinctive headgear -- hats with antennas and horns, that kind of stuff."

"Going up those trails in the middle of the night without any safety equipment and no lighting is pretty stupid," Gabriel said. "We've had washouts. If they took a wrong trail or fell off that trail, it's hundreds of feet down."

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/02/01/students_in_tutus_saved_from_mountain_road?mode=PF

[WindRavenX]

1. lol, my best friend goes to CalTech

You would not believe some of the crazy things they do there...

[mikeytherat]

2. True story

I had two frat brothers and three pledges TP and shaving cream my car one night; a night with a late ice storm that froze this papery goo to my car. I was quite late to class, what with the frozen glop removal.

Fast forward as I launch my revenge. I'm going to drive the pledges deep into the woods (with a brother following us), let all the air out of the tires, and make them go on a scavenger hunt through the woods to find the hidden tire pump. I've also convinced the two brothers responsible (who have NO idea I am aware of their involvement in the trashing of my car) to be my accomplices. Short ending -- they marched the pledges out into the woods, taunting them for what they did to my car, and came back to the flat-tired truck to find I was gone and they got to go on the scavenger hunt, too.

I was real easy on those three pledges after that, too.

One more thing:

On the night my pledge class was being initiated, we waited at the designated pick-up point for three hours, before making the phone call. Turns out the brother who was supposed to pick us up had Guard duty that weekend, and didn't tell anyone. The brothers were all at the house wondering where in the hell we were, and what he was doing to us!

mikey_the_rat