MISSION IS
♦COMPLETED AT
CRASH SCENE
HEADQUARTERS, ALASKAN
DEPARTMENT — A group of
army and civilian mountain
climbing experts, including many
soldier volunteers, have com- j
pleted an expedition to the wreck
age of a C-47 Air Transport Com
mand plane which carried 19'
persons to their deaths two
months ago high on an unnamed,
unmapped peak of the Alaska
mountain range, it was announc
ed today.
^The mission, which was com
pared with the most hazardous
of mountain climbing attempts in
North America, disclosed that the
big plane crashed into the moun-,
tainside less than 500 feet below
the summit of the 12,160-foot
peak, broke apart, and then tum
bled approximately 1,500 feet
down the precipitous icy slopes.;
^ Members of the party, believ- j
ed to be the first persons ever i
to climb the mountain, were un- j
able to lcoate any of the bodies,!
which apparently were scattered
for more than a quarter of a mile
radius down the side of the peak
and buried in the deep heavy
snowfalls. Except for one motor,
which lodged at the point of the
impact, the remainder of the
wreckage that was located, in
cluding one wing and part of the
broken fuselage, was covered by
more than 10 feet of snow.
An exhaustive search of the
area turned up a few personal
articles, including a bag of per
sonal effects, a cap, an army
blanket, and the furlough papers
of one of the passengers, most of
whom were service men enroute
to the States for leaves and fur-:
loughs.
Those who inspected the wreck- j
age said there could be no doubt
that all the occupants *of the
plane, which was flying on in-!
struments at the time of the:
crash, were instantly killed.
Grant Pearson, chief ranger at
McKinley Park and a veteran of
three previous mountain climb
ing expeditions in the territory,
two of them up 20,300-foot Mt.
McKinley, volunteered his ser-1
vices and* was one of the princi
pal figures* from the start. After
several flights over the scene of
the wreckage, he was satisfied
that an expedition was justified.
The party was later joined by
Bradford Washburn, expert con
sultant, Flying Clothes Branch,
AAF, Wright Field, Dayton, O.,
who was in Alaska conducting
cold weather tests for the War
Department. Director of the Bos
ton Museum of Naural History,
Washburn has made 12 ‘‘first at
tempts’’ at climbing Alaskan
peaks.
On October 10th an advance
party of 12 persons arrived at
McKinley Park station with the
supplies necessary to establish
a base camp at Wonder Lake,( on
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the McKinley Park road. Five ■
other forward camps were estab- ]j
lished during the latter phases of *
the mission, which was held up h
at times pending arrival of spec- !j
ial equipment necessary for the 1
safety of the members of the
party. ! •
Weather conditions were gen- •!
erally good but operations were 't
slowed on one or two occasions
by gales of 40 or 50 mile per
hour, and temperatures estimat- !
ed as low as 33 degrees below ’
zero.
At one point when an advance ;
party neared the top of the moun
tain, several of the me'n had to
pass under masses of snow and
ice which were hanging above
their route of climb, and sections
of the ice crumbled and fell!
ahead of and behind the men.
With this party besides Pearson
and Washburn were: S-Sgt. James
A. Gale of Anaconda, Mont.; Pvt.
Jack Yokel of Jackson, Wyo.; T-5
Jacob A. Stalker of Noatak, Ala.;
T-5 John M. Greany of Anchor
age, Alaska; a Signal Corps .
photographer; Pfc. Richard D.
Huff of Bliss, Idaho; Pfc. William
R. Harvey of Winnetka, 111.; T-l
James C. Larsen of Laramie,
Wyo.; Pvt. Joseph Secora of Clif
ton, N. J.; Cpl. Eugene Tetinek
of Cleveland, O.; and 1st. Lt. Al
len M. Dillman of Roosevelt,
Utah.
One avalanche narrowly miss
ed a few of the men, passing
about 150 feet ahead of them.
“That gave us quite a scare,”
said Private Yokel. “When the
ice started coming down, it
made a terrific noise and the
whole mountain shook like there
was an earthquake.”
The fifth camp of the expe
dition was stablished atop one
porion of the mountain, at an
altitude of 11,120 feet, from
where the men could look down
and see the point at which most
of the wreckage had previously
been spotted from the air. This
was about 1,000 feet below
them, on the opposite side of
the mountain from which they
had climbed.
The almost-perpendicular slope
which they had descenled to
reach the crash area was at one
point a 400-foot sheet of slip
pery ice which Pearson describ- J
ed as the toughest going he had ;
ever encountered. On Nov. 9, ■
Washburn, Stalkei and Yokel !
started down the sheer, ice- \
covered slope, traveling without ;
packs and lowering each other >
wtih ropes. The going was so !
slow that they made it only ‘
about half-way down the first 1
day and returned that night to J
the camp at the summit. They \
completed the descent to the ,
wreckage the next day, the re
mainder bf the advance party
following. This group remained
at the site of the plane for three
days, searching the area and
digging around the wreckage,
until all persons agreed that
further search would be useless.;
The advance party jot the 44
man expedition was supplied
from the air, with entire camps
being dropped at some points,
including tents, stoves, gasoline
and food. Pilots of the C-47 sup
ply planes, handling the big
aircraft, like pursuit planes,
despite dangerous drafts of
(Continued on Page 7)
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