Peter Stekel, hiker/backpacker and author, will be discussing his extensive research and new book, Final Flight, on the history of the mummified airmen found in the Mendel glacier 2005-7.

WHERE: Spellbinder Books (124 S. Main St., Bishop CA)
WHEN: Sat, 25 Sep 6-8p
CONTACT: (760) 873-4511

More info here. KUOW interview here. Fascinating story

Just a little thing that really happened to me, concerning the crash.

Back in Sept of 1993, I was descending from Mt Mendel, alone, and this was before the internet and all, anyhow, I found an airplane propeller, a big blade (too heavy to carry out) so I scratched my initials into it and leaned it up against a rock. It was really eerie, because I KNEW and airplane had crashed there, but there was still a lot of snow about as '93 was an above average year. I looked around briefly, but only found small bits of fuselage. Anyhow, I just had an eerie feeling that something had gone wrong in the area at one time. I have no photos as I was poor so I only took photos of mountains (as developing them was expensive), no digicams back then either. But I never forgot about that huge airplane propeller blade.

Anyhow, it's a true story.

Dougb wrote:Just a little thing that really happened to me, concerning the crash.

Back in Sept of 1993, I was descending from Mt Mendel, alone, and this was before the internet and all, anyhow, I found an airplane propeller, a big blade (too heavy to carry out) so I scratched my initials into it and leaned it up against a rock. It was really eerie, because I KNEW and airplane had crashed there, but there was still a lot of snow about as '93 was an above average year. I looked around briefly, but only found small bits of fuselage. Anyhow, I just had an eerie feeling that something had gone wrong in the area at one time. I have no photos as I was poor so I only took photos of mountains (as developing them was expensive), no digicams back then either. But I never forgot about that huge airplane propeller blade.

Anyhow, it's a true story.

that's a great story. is it the same plane? you should check out pics for the initials.

Wow, thanks dougb for sharing that story.

It has to be the same plane, the blade was very large, probably four feet long or more, I didn't measure it, and it was made from aircraft grade aluminum. I can't imagine it not being part of the wreckage. The initials I scratched were "DMC" and it was a quick and dirty job done with a small piece of talus. The weirdest thing was that when I came across the blade I thought to myself that something bad happened around here, so I did look around for a few minutes, but I couldn't find anything bigger than a foot or so in size. It was a hard crash. I had no idea that it was a missing plane or I would have reported it. I thought that maybe the larger pieces had been airlifted out or something, because all the pieces I found were small, but the blade was very big, and that always stuck in my head. But I swear I'm not making this up, I'm certainly not looking for any attention, but I just never forgot it. I could look in my records for the exact date. Anyhow, when I heard the story break a couple years ago, I immediately thought of the prop blade I found below Mt Mendel.

There are actually two airplane crashes in the area, one was much later. There is a hairy story about the second one on supertopo

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=704525&tn=0

scroll down to the post by dee ee.

Thanks for that link, what a hairy thing to watch for those people. Well, I may have found a propeller from the 1983 Bronco then, and not the earlier plane. I looked in my journal and I found the propeller blade on Sept 20, 1993 approx. 0.3 mile ESE of Mt Mendel at an elevation of 12,400+. I do not know the exact location of either crash, but that's when and where I found it. I have come across light plane crash debris in the Sierra, one that I remember was near Iron Mtn., it was a small plane, but I'm certain that one had been discovered long before I found it.

dougb, I am planning on attending the talk so I can ask the author if the propeller you found is from the older crash.

Vitaliy M wrote:I found a huge plane crash at Armstrong Canyon this summer

Michael Graupe and Ron Hudson checked out the same wreckage in 2008, a McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee which crashed in 1956.

Here's another one from this summer, between Kuna & Koip, a B-24 that crashed in 1943:

whoa! these pics are rad

There are a lot of crash sites in the Sierra. Here is one I found SW of Florence Peak in Sequoia National Park. I tried to find information on this one but came up with nothing.



The one we came across last year below Echo Col:

Thanks for the interesting pics. Maybe it's time for an SP album?

Vitaliy M wrote:I found a huge plane crash at Armstrong Canyon this summer

That one looks like it went straight down, nose first

friendly reminder...