At approximately 4:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time, Sunday March 6th the Anderson family van passed from this world into the next. Its self-immolation occurred at mile post 81 on US Hwy. 2, West of Leavenworth, Wa. It died doing what it loved best, that is, transporting mountaineers to and from a climbing event.

While driving back from an eventful climb of Castle Rock, Rick (the Pater familias, El Jefe) noticed the engine dying. He pulled over to the side to see what was the matter. The gals in the following car, driven by Gay Gibson, saw flames emerging from the underside of the car. They honked and hollered trying to get the guys’ attention, but Rick and his passengers (Brad Gibson, Gene Saxon and Tom Lewis) were occupied by singing a rousing chorus of Dennis Leary’s “Life's gonna suck when you grow up” and couldn't hear them. When the van came to a stop the flames became apparent to the men and they hastily exited the vehicle. Realizing that it contained about $10,000 worth of climbing gear, they returned to it and unloaded the gear as quickly as possible. Tom Lewis, with characteristic courage (earlier in the day he’d saved Rick’s butt on the 2nd pitch of Saber) attempted to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher, an act later described by a fire department spokesman as “pissing into the wind”. The van soon became a ball of flame consuming everything that wasn't metal including Brad's (ugly!!!) Luv mug and the Dennis Leary CD. It was also thought that the fire had consumed Tom's unopened can of Pringles, but thankfully that later proved to be untrue.

Many Mountaineers and family members have spent long hours riding in it to or from an adventure. From the family vacations to Northern British Columbia and Palm Springs, to the ONE DAY whirlwind climbing trip to Smith Rock the van was the locus of unparalleled joy. The van was an icon, the most visible and recognizable member of the family. You could always pick it out of a crowd. Those who knew it, never saw it without recognizing it.

The Van was a 1992 Plymouth Voyager LE, which spent its first 5 years in California. Rick and Laura obtained the van in April of 1997. At that time it had 72,000 miles on the odometer. At its passing, it had over 280,000 miles. The last couple of years it had been suffering health problems. Repeated axel replacements (thank God for Les Schwab’s “life time warranty”) and motor mount repairs plagued it. A year ago it barely survived a blown engine and had not left the state since then. In spite of these limitations, it continued in the activities it loved. Just the day before, it carried 8 climbers with all their gear to the top of Mt. Erie for the Basic Rock II field trip.

The van was immediately taken to Leavenworth but will be returned to Snohomish County for autopsy. Its ashes will be spread along Highway 2. The van will be mourned by all who knew it, save for Les Schwab and AAA. May we all be reunited some day!