Word: crall
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Ruff, from nearby Kelso, had pitched tents at the Green River campground with four young friends. On Saturday they hiked through what Ruff called "an enchanted forest of moss and pine" and then set up tents 30 miles from the peak. On Sunday Nelson, Ruff and Terry Crall were beginning morning chores when they felt a searing wind. Recalled Nelson: "We were just cooking breakfast when my buddy said, 'Oh my God, the mountain blew!' " Ruff added, "We saw this thick yellow-and-black cloud rushing toward us. I remember thinking, 'I should take a picture...
...Crall raced into a tent to wake Karen Varner, and Nelson wrapped his arms around Ruff as trees fell around them and hot ash rained down. Said Nelson: "We were buried. Then Sue and I started digging our way out of the ash, which was so hot that it burned our hands. Our mouths were full of mud. I told Sue we were going to die, and she said, 'Nonsense.' " As they crawled out from under the trees and ash, they began to gag from the gases in the air and had to cover their mouths with their...
When at last the darkness began to lift, Nelson and Ruff began looking for their friends. They saw nothing but ashes and logs where Varner's tent had been; she and Crall later were found dead. The two other members of the camping group, Dan Balch and Brian Thomas, were alive -barely. Burned skin hung loose from Balch's shoulders to his hands, and he was in shock. He was unable to walk. Thomas, wearing only the long john bottoms in which he had been sleeping, was lying dazed under a log. Nelson and Ruff hauled...