1977 Airplane Crash in Yosemite

Enter Rick Schloss, the latest would-be chronicler, whose 2005 post on www.supertopo.com, announcing his plan to coauthor a nonfiction book on the incident with the pilot's widow, set off a maelstrom of replies. The ensuing two-year thread has become a novel in itself, with cyber-reunions of old Camp 4 friends, paranoid speculations about authorities monitoring the site and nostalgic paens to the wild summer of the Yosemite "Gold Rush." Behind it all the aspiring author has kept a shadowy, persistent presence, commenting on the various arguments, dropping hints about new facts to be revealed in his book, but refusing to give his proof before publication.

Over the telephone, Schloss tells us his own story: he's a fifty-seven-year-old salesman of German industrial equipment, who'd learned to climb in the military and done some soloing in Yosemite, in lug boots, without a guidebook. The pilot's widow, an old high-school friend, had asked him to help her contact the climbing community. Since Schloss had no background in writing or in journalism, his brother, a former detective, taught him the basics of conducting interviews and warned him to be scrupulous when corroborating witness' statements. He soon became intrigued with sifting through the decades of myths to find the "truth"—and equally fascinated by the endless self-perpetuation of the fictitious accounts. Having observed how talking about a far-fetched rumor long enough makes it seem true, he's aware that he's now considered on the forum to be a sort of authority and that he could easily start his own rumors.

As jittery sounding, in some ways, as his Internet correspondents, Schloss won't reveal the name of his agent, his publisher, the title of his book, or the date of publication, but assures us in a compassionate tone that many people want to know what he knows and that all will soon be revealed, perhaps not long after we go to press.

On the other hand, when asked about his motivations, Schloss is effusive. "The truth is important, period. You either write fiction or you don't. Do you write what's true or what someone told you is true—like how I'm telling you all this is true on the phone?"