Steve Fossett would have had a hard time picking a more dramatic backdrop for his final adventure. From the road leading up to the eastern Yosemite gate, the Minarets loom dark, jaggy and dangerous
on a far-off ridge in the High Sierra. Up close they are simply spectacular.
This Google map shows approximately where Fossett’s plane crashed. The last I heard, a small bone about 2 inches long had been found there and presumed to be human, and therefore, Fossett’s. I’ll wait till the DNA report comes in, thank you.
I read in several reports that Fossett left the small Nevada airport on Labor Day 2007 with little more than a water bottle, and no parachute. Searchers in fixed-wing planes scanned the site more than a dozen times, but it took a helicopter at around 200 feet to get in close enough to spot what was left of the aircraft after it rammed into a mountainside.
I’ll close with links from this morning’s paper:
San Francisco Chronicle: Tom Stienstra on the hikers’ paradise near Devil’s Post Pile.
The region is called the Ansel Adams Wilderness, and it is the heart of the John Muir Trail country. It features some of California’s most pristine, beautiful and popular backpacking destinations.
From the main Chron new story:
The investigation will take months, if not years, but Fossett’s friend and fellow aviator, John “Bumper” Morgan, doesn’t have to see the crash site in the Inyo National Forest to know what probably happened.
Morgan has flown gliders and airplanes for decades throughout the Eastern Sierra, where the pieces of Fossett’s borrowed plane were found this week, and he’s come to fear the downdraft of wind coming off the slopes and the sudden thermals whipping up from the ground.
“One of those two things got Steve, I’m pretty sure,” said Morgan, 63, of Gardnerville, Nev. “Even if you have your head screwed on straight and are a very good flier like he was, downdrafts and thermals can leap up and get you. Mother Nature just knows how to dish out more than you can handle.”
From the Reno Gazette-Journal:
Meanwhile, California National Guard troops also were scheduled to head to the rugged spot in the Inyo National Forest where searchers located the wreckage of the single-engine plane Fossett was flying when he disappeared more than a year ago. They planned to airlift out the surviving portions of the plane in Blackhawk helicopters so they could be reassembled and examined at a nearby hangar.
NTSB investigators went high into the mountains Thursday to figure out what caused the plane to go down. Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away at an elevation of 9,700 feet, authorities said.
Here’s an MP3 of an interview with the guy who owns the sporting goods store managed by Preston Morrow, who found Fossett’s pilot’s license.
MAMMOTH LAKES, CALIF. — After an exhaustive search by the Civil Air Patrol, sophisticated analysis of satellite images and a year of uncertainty, it finally came down to this: A lone hiker and his dog.
On Thursday, 43-year-old Preston Morrow was weary. He had done more than 30 interviews with reporters from around the world, all eager to know how he stumbled on the clues that led searchers to the wreckage of adventurer Steve Fossett’s single-engine plane as well as a bone fragment that might be human.
Ol’ Preston says he’s ready for a vacation now that his 15 minutes of fame are up.
I think the lesson of Fossett’s life is simple: if you want to do something, stop wanting and start doing.
I hope those National Guard troops get in and out quickly, because this storm is going to hit them after it hits us. The forecast for Mammoth Lakes has a lovely mix of rain and snow. Bleah.
As fate would have it, I was on vacation for my own little photography trip to the Eastern Sierras looking for the fall colors. I found some but was a little early for the peak. Anyway, I had checked out of the Lake View Lodge in Lee Vining on Wednesday and was heading down to Bishop when on a lark I decided to do a sightseeing side trip up into Mammoth. I drove the scenic loop, checked out the earthquake fault, and then headed up to the Minaret overlook. Just before I got to the top there, I saw all these sheriff cars, search and rescue cars, a fire engine, and a helicopter. I drove the 50 yards or so up to the top and and saw this older fellow standing there looking out towards the Minarets. I asked him if they were training and he said no, it’s the real deal. And I asked, oh no, is a hiker in trouble? And he told me no, that a hiker had found Steve Fossett’s ID and other papers. And I’m like thinking what!?! No way! I had no idea this was going on as I wasn’t reading news papers, listening to the radio, or even watching TV. I was too busy with the photography to let the world interfere and now I suddenly felt in the middle of it by some strange coincidence.
Anyway, as I talked with this fellow, the helicopter took off and flew off towards the Minarets and disappeared into the scenery. I assumed it dropped below the ridge of the hill in front of the Minarets but I couldn’t tell. The fellow I met up there thought the same thing. As we talked, the helicopter flew back but I still couldn’t tell where it came from. It just suddenly appeared in as a dot in the air coming back. That area is big. I’m glad to see you posted this map Tom, as I have been curious about where the crash site was. If I am reading the map right, it is on the far side of that hill below the Minarets that you see when you are up on that overlook.
Anyway, I just got home last night. I wanted to come home through Yosemite but they told me at the hotel that 120 was closed due to snow so I went down around Tehachipi. I’m sure Mammoth must have gotten their share of that snow too.