But the Crag Rats were not involved in any ordinary "scoop and stuff" garbage retrieval. Tourists had tossed plastic foam coffee cups and other trash on the steep slopes of the lower bowl at Multnomah Falls. The oldest search and rescue group in North America agreed to take the vertical challenge presented by the US Forest Sevice.

"We turned retrieval into a training exercise to improve our skills to rescue real victims, said Helmut Reidl, president of the club, who is also known as the "Big Squeak."

Kevin Slagle, affiliated with both the Crag Rats and Forest Service, served as Trash Incident Commander. He organized mountaineers for the collection exercise that, in a little more than, three hours, yielded several bags of refuse. Included in the finds of the day were a Frisbee, golf ball and four camera lens caps. Crag Rats also became $25 in loose change richer for their work.

Since 1926, the Crag Rats have been rescuing mountain climbers, skiers, hikers and, on occasion, four-legged companions of outdoor recreationists.