Spooky place that is. That's the same area Randy Morgenson, the legendary backcountry ranger mysteriously disappeared in 1996 and whose body wasn't found until 2001. The book The Last Season by Eric Blehm recounts this interesting tale. If they are somehow his that's a huge find and should definitely be reported.

Deb wrote:... No one's going to go looking for it unless is was a blivet with cargo in it.

Well, you helped me solve a 23-year-old mystery... namely, what is a "blivet". I never realized there was actually a legitimate military meaning.

Where I once worked, there was a rotund fellow who was called (not to his face) "The Blivet". When I asked for a definition of blivet, I was told, "10 lbs of sh*t in a 5 lb sack".

rmick25 wrote:Spooky place that is. That's the same area Randy Morgenson, the legendary backcountry ranger mysteriously disappeared in 1996 and whose body wasn't found until 2001. The book The Last Season by Eric Blehm recounts this interesting tale. If they are somehow his that's a huge find and should definitely be reported.

I don’t remember all the details regarding Randy Morgenson’s belongings but I doubt he had any cross country skis. Maybe ice axe and crampons since his patrol started in the spring and ran through summer, I may be wrong. Randy was found south of the coordinates given by alpinego in the Window Peak drainage. However, it might be a good idea to report the find regardless.

-Rudy

drop tank...

Negative. Part of an early generation program for FAE. Had fuze timing relays (primative for sure).

Dave Daly wrote:drop tank...

Negative. Part of an early generation program for FAE. Had fuze timing relays (primative for sure).

Really? It looks too fragile and bulbous for an FAE bomb... and that does look like a drain plug.

Well FAEs were tested at China Lake... maybe they were trying to root out Manson.

Charles(?) I guessing this was your post??

Looks like your first thread got hijacked within a couple posts..

Maybe the skier was hit by a jettisoned drop tank.

MoapaPk wrote:

Dave Daly wrote:drop tank...

Negative. Part of an early generation program for FAE. Had fuze timing relays (primative for sure).

Really? It looks too fragile and bulbous for an FAE bomb... and that does look like a drain plug.

Well FAEs were tested at China Lake... maybe they were trying to root out Manson.

Hopefully, these photos will help. They are from the same tank. The date and time of each photo is included in its filename.

The tag on the thing reads "DO NOT REFUEL THRU [sic] THIS FILLER CAP. . . ."



In the above photo, I had trouble reading the text in the bottom right, but with a different tilt of the camera, it became legible:

The lower right-hand corner is telling. I bet those bastards were bombing skiers on high ridges above Death Valley.

"Refuel" suggests it's not FAE, since those were single-use.

An ultra runner I know used to run from Mammoth to Yosemite in a day, usually in the springtime. Following one particularly heavy winter, he set out a few weeks too early and got into some snow over the passes that slowed him down considerably. The stream crossings were tough too, so it was getting pretty late by the time he approached the bridges below Merced Lake.

One of the bridges had washed out either from avalanche or spring runoff. He tried to detour over a granite dome and found himself in a slabby pickle. He had traversed out over many moves that he did not think he could reverse, and the route ahead looked worse. Stuck.

The thought process that one goes through when they are stuck is a wild journey that really must be experienced and cannot be easily explained. Imagine that his situation was heightened by the fact that he was very alone and if he fell, there would be no witnesses, and perhaps, his remains would never be found.

Somehow, in the darkness, he was able to climb down the rock to a patch of forest along the raging Merced River. As he stumbled off the dome, he found himself in a debri field with abandoned snowshoes, a ratty pack, poles, and who knows what else.

Had someone else fallen from the dome? He had no time to investigate. He continued his run to the Valley, arriving way too late, and too exhausted to notify anyone of his find.

A couple calls were made to YOSAR, but those that took the calls were disinterested in the find, saying that nobody was missing. The location and circumstances of the items did not arouse any concern. That was it. Maybe the stuff is still there...

dude - there's crap all over the Sierra's
- found a ski boot collecting needles near Treasure Lakes (Lil' Lakes Valley)
- found a shredded sleeping bag sprayed all over some bushes and trees near the other Treasure Lakes (South Lake) - maybe that's the treasure -
- can't swing a dead cat without smackin' a downed plane or marijuana patch or a granola bar wrapper or live ordinance - ever been to Walker Lake? next to the picnic tables are signs warning of unexploded ordinances, don't walk around and "have a nice day"

I think of it as white guy arrowheads - when the next evolution of beings starts collecting really old trash to put on their mantles, they'll have a great time picking up bottle caps, plastic squirt bottles and old ski boots - we're leaving artifacts and history
Weed gardens the new mining operations of the West, tearing down, using up, leave it where it breaks and move on -

I still haven't seen Sasquatch or a disabled person taking a pony ride in the backcountry -
maybe I got to get out more

I narrowly missed a backcountry ski trip into Emerald Lake in the San Juans... where my buds found a frozen murder victim.

The body was inside a sleeping bag, in a partly-collapsed tent. The coroner determined that his windpipe had been crushed during strangulation.

The unfortunate camper had backpacked in near the end of September; at that altitude, there was already snow.

My buds were suspicious when they saw a tent mainly drifted-over with snow. They reached in and felt the guy's leg, through the sleeping bag-- stiff as iron. Fortunately his wallet was outside his bag.

The unfortunate's parents knew only that he was on a backcountry trip in Colorado. His body wasn't found until about 6 months after the murder, and as far as I know, the case was never solved. My bud was given a reward from the fellow's father, who appealed for any information on his son. The father came to Albuquerque to deliver the reward personally.

LOL @ 'white guy arrowheads'