lost pilot (old story 80s)

[pink_albatross]

"Another hang glider went missing on the back side of Columbia Mountain in the early 1980s. Searchers found the hang glider and the man's helmet, but the man was never found despite several years of searching with up to 150 people at a time. His was the only case of a missing person never found by NVSR."

found the above following one of the links in the oz report.
Pretty mysterious, eh?
Does anybody know anything about this?

link: http://www.hungryhorsenews.com/articles ... news01.txt

I think it's somewhere in montana.

-- ellis

[brianvh]

Sparky looks pretty lost sometimes...

Brian Vant-Hull
301-646-1149

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005, pink_albatross wrote:

> "Another hang glider went missing on the back side of Columbia Mountain in the early 1980s. Searchers found the hang glider and the man's helmet, but the man was never found despite several years of searching with up to 150 people at a time. His was the only case of a missing person never found by NVSR."
>
> found the above following one of the links in the oz report.
> Pretty mysterious, eh?
> Does anybody know anything about this?
>
> link: http://www.hungryhorsenews.com/articles ... news01.txt
>
> I think it's somewhere in montana.
>
> -- ellis

[Spark]

Sparky looks pretty lost sometimes...

Brian Vant-Hull
301-646-1149

Brian, looks can be deceiving. Actually, I have only been lost once in my life. Here is the true story:

A long time ago, before my back began delaminating, I hiked up 13,441 msl Montgomery peak in the White mountains with an old-timer HG pilot named Bob Skinner. The weather went sour the day before and it snowed that night. The plan was to do a day hike from our camp on the eastern slope. We were dressed lightly with a small pack containing food and water for one day.

Visibility was very low the entire journey until we summited and got a glimpse of the Owens valley on the west side. It was very much worth the effort ... until ...

Bob wanted to take a "shortcut". I wanted to follow our tracks down. I was torn, I didn't want to part company so I followed Bob down the "shortcut".

When we got below the cloud cover, it was painfully obvious that we were in the wrong canyon. The sun was going down and we had no option other than to descend as low as possible before nightfall.

We had to scramble and bushwack down over cliffs and through gullies to get to a meadow at 9000'msl before nightfall. We were stuck there all night trying to keep a fire burning while it rained. In the morning, we had a horrendous walk around the base of the mountain to get back to our campsite. Without Bob's water purification tablets, we would have been in serious trouble.

Never again will I follow someone who thinks they know a "shortcut".

[brianvh]

When I first started reading this I just assumed you were hiking up with
hang-gliders. Still a good story.

Brian Vant-Hull
301-646-1149

On Tue, 8 Mar 2005, Spark wrote:

>
> Brian, looks can be deceiving. Actually, I have only been lost once in my life. Here is the true story:
>
> A long time ago, before my back began delaminating, I hiked up 13,441 msl Montgomery peak in the White mountains with an old-timer HG pilot named Bob Skinner. The weather went sour the day before and it snowed that night. The plan was to do a day hike from our camp on the eastern slope. We were dressed lightly with a small pack containing food and water for one day.
>
> Visibility was very low the entire journey until we summited and got a glimpse of the Owens valley on the west side. It was very much worth the effort ... until ...
>
> Bob wanted to take a "shortcut". I wanted to follow our tracks down. I was torn, I didn't want to part company so I followed Bob down the "shortcut".
>
> When we got below the cloud cover, it was painfully obvious that we were in the wrong canyon. The sun was going down and we had no option other than to descend as low as possible before nightfall.
>
> We had to scramble and bushwack down over cliffs and through gullies to get to a meadow at 9000'msl before nightfall. We were stuck there all night trying to keep a fire burning while it rained. In the morning, we had a horrendous walk around the base of the mountain to get back to our campsite. Without Bob's water purification tablets, we would have been in serious trouble.
>
> Never again will I follow someone who thinks they know a "shortcut".'Spark

[Spark]

When I first started reading this I just assumed you were hiking up with
hang-gliders. Still a good story.

Brian Vant-Hull
301-646-1149

Thanks for reminding me ... I had almost forgotten that stuff ... Hiking up mountains with Hang Gliders ... would be two other stories. I'll make them brief:

Hiked a Seagull 10 meter 3200 vertical feet up Mt. Tallac (South shore of Lake Tahoe) in the spring of 1979, in hip-deep snow. It took two days to get to the top. We had to hikeback down and come back a week later to finish the job. I launching from the "Cross" coulour, a popular extreme skiing and snowboarding spot. A week later, I came back, hiked it and diid the launch on skis.

http://kevingong.com/Hiking/Tallac.html
http://www.tahoebackcountry.net/feature ... itpano.jpg
http://www.summitpost.org/mountains/pho ... ect_id/289
http://www.jour.unr.edu/outpost/outdoor ... allac.html

Hiked a UP Mosquito 9 miles and 4,213 vertical feet to Mt. Charleston peak in Southern Nevada in August of 1980. The trip took two days. I flew down with a sleeping bag strapped to my keel.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/637 ... 8746RUTFIv
http://www.summitpost.org/mountains/pho ... ___limit__

[hang_pilot]

How did you haul the glider?
?
Good stuff.?
?
~Daniel

?
-----Original Message-----
From: Spark [mailto:BagPipeFlyer@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 2:45 PM
To: ot_forum@chgpa.org
Subject: lost pilot (old story 80s)
?
brianvh wrote:
When I first started reading this I just assumed you were hiking up with
hang-gliders. Still a good story.

Brian Vant-Hull
301-646-1149




Thanks for reminding me ... I had almost forgotten that stuff ... Hiking up mountains with Hang Gliders ... would be two other stories. I'll make them brief:

Hiked a Seagull 10 meter 3200 vertical feet up Mt. Tallac (South shore of Lake Tahoe) in the spring of 1979, in hip-deep snow. It took two days to get to the top. We had to hikeback down and come back a week later to finish the job. I launching from the "Cross" coulour, a popular extreme skiing and snowboarding spot. A week later, I came back, hiked it and diid the launch on skis.

http://kevingong.com/Hiking/Tallac.html
http://www.tahoebackcountry.net/features/tallac02/images/tallacsummitpano.jpg
http://www.summitpost.org/mountains/photo_query.pl/object_id/289
http://www.jour.unr.edu/outpost/outdoors/archives/out.yannakos.tallac.html

Hiked a UP Mosquito 9 miles and 4,213 vertical feet to Mt. Charleston peak in Southern Nevada in August of 1980. The trip took two days. I flew down with a sleeping bag strapped to my keel.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/63716327/63718746RUTFIv
http://www.summitpost.org/mountains/photo_link.pl/p/photo_id__99310__object_id__941__type__mountain__mountain_id__941__route_id____user_id____order_by____limit__




'Spark

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[mcelrah]

You are indeed a superior human being. I am tempted to call "road
trip!" again, but can't really follow through since I'm already
committed to a full schedule this summer. One of the hiking posts
mentions the difficult footing. Was there a nice smooth LZ? I suppose
the effort of humping the glider up is somewhat offset by not having to
hike back down - at least one time. - Hugh

On 9 Mar 2005, at 14:44, Spark wrote:

> edu

[Spark]

Nothing superior about it at all - that was 25 years (and 25 lbs) ago. In the snow on Tallac, I was just sliding the glider along as I took thigh-deep steps. On the Charleston trail, we were carrying the gliders on our shoulders. At first I was able to make it 50 yards without stopping. Near the top (at 11.9k msl), I was lucky to go 20 feet before resting for a few minutes.

I recall that Joe Schad carried his glider up the Woodstock road (frontside) and then again with his harness. Now that is something.

There is no way I could (or would) ever do that kind of thing again with a HG. Gliders weighed less than 50 lbs, and harnesses were lighter. The only reason I finished the hikes is because I wasn't willing to hike back down.

Paragliders are much better suited to hiking. If my back ever improves, I'd like to do another 'hike-n-fly'.

[brianvh]

Still sounds pretty superior to me. But I never heard the Joe Schad
story. We need him to supply the details.

Brian Vant-Hull
301-646-1149

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005, Spark wrote:

> Nothing superior about it at all - that was 25 years (and 25 lbs) ago. In the snow on Tallac, I was just sliding the glider along as I took thigh-deep steps. On the Charleston trail, we were carrying the gliders on our shoulders. At first I was able to make it 50 yards without stopping. Near the top (at 11.9k msl), I was lucky to go 20 feet before resting for a few minutes.
>
> I recall that Joe Schad carried his glider up the Woodstock road (frontside) and then again with his harness. Now that is something.
>
> There is no way I could (or would) ever do that kind of thing again with a HG. Gliders weighed less than 50 lbs, and harnesses were lighter. The only reason I finished the hikes is because I wasn't willing to hike back down.
>
> Paragliders are much better suited to hiking. If my back ever improves, I'd like to do another 'hike-n-fly'.'Spark

[mcelrah]

Apparently it is possible to do PG hike-n-fly with multiple hops across
rugged terrain. What were the LZs like at Tallac and Charleston? -
Hugh

On 10 Mar 2005, at 06:44, Spark wrote:

> Nothing superior about it at all - that was 25 years (and 25 lbs) ago.
> In the snow on Tallac, I was just sliding the glider along as I took
> thigh-deep steps. On the Charleston trail, we were carrying the
> gliders on our shoulders. At first I was able to make it 50 yards
> without stopping. Near the top (at 11.9k msl), I was lucky to go 20
> feet before resting for a few minutes.
>
> I recall that Joe Schad carried his glider up the Woodstock road
> (frontside) and then again with his harness. Now that is something.
>
> There is no way I could (or would) ever do that kind of thing again
> with a HG. Gliders weighed less than 50 lbs, and harnesses were
> lighter. The only reason I finished the hikes is because I wasn't
> willing to hike back down.
>
> Paragliders are much better suited to hiking. If my back ever
> improves, I'd like to do another 'hike-n-fly'.
>
>
>
> 'Spark
>
>
>
>