Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Wonder
climber
WA
|
|
HOLY COW !!! It's been 5 years !!! It seems like I just got back from India !
Yep, this thread is going as slow as the holy cows !
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
|
Yep, this thread is going as slow as the holy cows !
Perhaps, but this thread has better legs.
|
|
Risk
Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
|
|
I have always chuckled when this thread re-appears, and invariably check out the latest banter. Thanks everyone. I hope it lives on for years yet, book or no book. As far as I’m concerned, this thread holds the pieces of the story, and the more anecdotes added the better. Keep em’ coming.
Not sure if anyone ever mentioned the “switched trail signs” scandal. After about 4 miles down from the Mono Meadows trailhead, the trail junction signs got switched by a prankster trying to send gold-diggers up the wrong trail. This was classic. If you followed the trail signs instead of looking on the map, you’d end up at Buena Vista Lakes. Since the correct way involved a pretty precarious crossing at Illiouette Creek, many took the bait and followed the wrong trail. Others, chicken to make the crossing, wandered up the creek aimlessly.
The switched trail signs didn’t fool our party, even in darkness and with weak flashlights. We braved the creek ford and climbed the sandbank hillside where the right trail emerged at the top of the bluff. After another 3 or so miles was a decent campsite along the Clark Fork. After we settled in and started to unpack, we heard a crash and splash down in the water; my sleeping bag, still in its stuff sack, had rolled into the creek and was bobbing beneath a cascade and a cornice of snow in the frigid snowmelt creek. Once retrieved, it really wasn’t that bad still, and I slept just fine in my Woolrich knickers that night. I recall we brought along plenty of wine.
|
|
sidmo
Sport climber
general delivery
|
|
that's funny, i had a bag roll away once too, just off a cliff though and not into water - a short rappel and all was good - we need square stuff sacks
|
|
Licky
Mountain climber
California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 6, 2010 - 01:19am PT
|
Thanks WB...very well put.
|
|
sidmo
Sport climber
general delivery
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2010 - 12:07am PT
|
licky you're fading in and out again, must be losing your connection -
if you ever come out with that book will anyone still be awake to read it?
i'm really beginning to wonder about you, are you a person or a committee, or a posse perhaps?
|
|
sidmo
Sport climber
general delivery
|
|
|
Jun 19, 2010 - 02:35pm PT
|
looking more and more like some fed operation going on here - if not, dispute the assertion - licky, indeed - how many cops did it take to come up with that alias?
|
|
survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
|
|
|
Jun 19, 2010 - 02:59pm PT
|
members of the klimmerati.
Ha!!!
I missed that one before. Thanks Anders.
|
|
sidmo
Sport climber
general delivery
|
|
|
Jun 24, 2010 - 03:16pm PT
|
licky has left the building - probably checking in with his superiors in DC
|
|
sidmo
Sport climber
general delivery
|
|
|
Jul 21, 2010 - 11:16pm PT
|
see, i told y'all so! he'd have been back online by now, it's been weeks - don't worry, the SOL is long expired - this guy played us for saps, i'm cool with it but it's no way to treat an old climber - bet he never busted his knuckles in a jamcrack
|
|
Licky
Mountain climber
California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 29, 2010 - 10:39pm PT
|
Thanks Rok...I just set the gears in motion. I've pretty much gathered what I can and now the fingers do the typing.
If you catch wind of anything going on, people trying to contact people, its all for the good. So don't duck and weave.
|
|
Licky
Mountain climber
California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 29, 2010 - 11:38pm PT
|
Well Klimmer, I'll use that old phrase, "Big fish in a little sea".
Let me first say that I'm by no means a lawyer or a LEO. But I have done my share of research. From what I have managed to find, those involved in Federal tresspass (the lake was off limits and posted) I have not a clue. This subject was never brought up by anyone that I interviewed within the Park department or law enforcement.
As for drug possesion for the purpose of sale or the actual sale, the statute of limitations appears to be seven years. Since the coroner concluded that there is no capital offense (homicide) then no one was placed on a short list for the death of the two pilots. Jack Dorn's death was determined to be an accident and the same applies to that.
If you go back to my first post you will see some postings where people were concerned. And I have to tell you that when I first started poking around and setting up interviews there were a few nervous people. I think some either thought that I was DEA and we are coming for you...or I'm with the mafia and we want our money. Ya gots to do your homework and not depend on rumors.
|
|
grunter
Social climber
confusion
|
|
|
Jul 30, 2010 - 12:14am PT
|
I heard that the feds were back out to the dope plane this weekend? So whats up Werner did something get missed? What were they doing there?
|
|
TripL7
Trad climber
san diego
|
|
|
Jul 30, 2010 - 01:14am PT
|
The first time I saw Jack, was the summer of '74. I was sitting with WB in the lodge cafeteria, and in walks this guy looking like he got lost on the way to fix the first couple pitches of the Nose(or the N F Eiger). I'm talking a huge big-wall pin rack etc. On his head he had a white Joe Brown helmet, and on his feet were a pair of mountain double-boots. Over his shoulder a coiled Edelrid...perhaps two.
He marches into the middle of the cafeteria with pins and bongs rattling. And once he has every one's attention, he burts out with "Anybody wanna go climb a rock?" I just stared at the guy with my jaw hanging. I managed a glance at Werner, and he just gives a nod of approval and says "He's OK."
I mean climbers were supposed to act/be cool back then. And nobody wore helmets in Yosemite...let alone into the cafeteria. I figured he was having a hard time finding someone to climb with, or his climbing club had failed to show up, or whatever. Now that I think about it, Jack didn't give a damn what anyone else thought, he just wanted to climb.
Well of course the dude transformed into Jack Dorn Valley Hardman. And I will now shift to the last time I saw Jack. Although there were many times in between, and all were special. Like the time he passed through Mammoth on his way to do the Muir Trail link-up from Mammoth to Yosemite. I remember I spotted him from about half a mile away, as he walked down Main St. with this big Winchester '94 rifle sticking out of the back of his pack. I didn't question him about why he had brought it on a Muir Trail Wilderness hike. I mean hey, it was Jack! And when he offered it to me for fifty bucks, I just shook my head no(I probably didn't have fifty bucks). One of those times I think about now and then.
But for some reason the two times I remember most, are the first and the last.
The last time was Spring '77. I had landed in the Valley the day that all hell broke loose. It was referred to as something like Black Wednesday, or Thursday perhaps. I simply remember it as one of those times I was a day late and a dollar short.
Well, actually I had seventy five bucks. That I am sure of because I had spent the last two weeks trying to get the seventy five dollar cleaning deposit back from the Realtors we rented the old A-frame cabin in Mammoth from all winter. My roommate and everyone else had long since departed for the Valley. And not a soul had called to let me know of the goings on that Spring...go figure.
So as I'm passing El Cap Meadow that morning, I notice one huge Hughie chopper coming and another one going, I new something was up. I sat there for about two hours and watched them come and go about every fifteen minutes or so, unloading bale after bale. Now a bale is about fifty-five lbs., we're talking alotta grass.
Don't remember what I climbed that afternoon(I was just there for the day). But it was at the base of the Captain because two or three of us stopped to say hello to Jack, just as he was about to lead Moby Dick Center...in his long-john underwear. I remember as a joke I dropped a couple of pebbles into each of Jacks RR's(blue boots)that he had left at the base(his approach and day to day shoe). And how we all got a laugh out of it when he went to put them on. Just a way of saying "Good to see ya again dude!"
We made plans to do a route when I returned in a week or so. And I paused for a second as I was leaving. I don't remember what I was thinking, or the expression I might have had on my face. But I will forever remember Jacks response to it. He just kinda shrugged his shoulders and said "I just wanna get a little land in Montana, and build myself a cabin."
And then he was gone.
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
|
Jul 30, 2010 - 01:40am PT
|
grunter
Yep! The feds went back to the lake and found evidence.
Yep!
Evidence of everyone ever involved.
A creature in the lake spilled the beans.
Everyone's toast ......
|
|
Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
|
|
|
Jul 30, 2010 - 01:44am PT
|
Wasn't there some lady and a sword?
|
|
Captain...or Skully
Big Wall climber
Transporter Room 2
|
|
|
Jul 30, 2010 - 01:57am PT
|
What?
Some tart in a Lake with a Sword?
No, no, no, we're an autonomous collective.
|
|
Licky
Mountain climber
California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 30, 2010 - 03:01am PT
|
In response to Trip's story. You see guys. This is why this is taking so long. Here it is five years later and people are still coming forward with their take on the event. In many cases their stories are exactly what is needed. Different angles from different perspectives. So to those that are pushing to get this done....S2
|
|
sidmo
Sport climber
general delivery
|
|
|
Aug 10, 2010 - 12:00pm PT
|
don't worry - licky will reveal his true identity . . . on the dust jacket of the book - gonna cost you $24.99 to find out if you been talking to a fed - i had a one-on-one email exchange with mr. mystery himself that he abruptly halted and haven't heard back from him since - i offered writing advice, writing and editing is what i do - and the first suggestion i would offer is to nurture your sources, don't make them uneasy
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!