Sunday, August 24, 2008

Separate phones for reporter and photographer


Here's the deal on the satellite phone: We're taking two -- one for photos and one for words.

We're doing it just in case we happen upon an ice mummy and there's a national story that needs to be done right then and there. As the movie line goes, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a face to go with a name?"

News can be creepy. You should have seen the first homicide I covered in Bakersfield about 30 years ago. I'll tell you about it some time.

I'll be carrying the one for voice only. Supposedly, you can hit satellites easier with it. So I'll be calling regularly from the trail to dictate blog items, which you can follow. If you have questions, send them along. I'll answer you from the trail.

The other phone is heavier and doesn't hook up very well with satellites because of the mountains. It's for data. Photo data. This fussy contraption could be the source of much dismay from the photographer.

In the photo above, you see three of us from the Muir Trail hike two years ago. We're at the Muir Hut, near the pass. That is the one and only place that we connected on the trail with a satellite phone.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Hope there's no smoke


There are some things you can count on in California.

In the winter, it rains in LA and house slide down muddy hillsides where people probably shouldn't have built their homes anyway.

In spring, people are on pins and needles about either a drought or a big snowmelt that will flood everyone downstream in May and June.

In summer, fire rages through overgrown forests, which are the continuing target of environmental lawsuit and gridlock over proper management.

Ah, but when fall nips the air. Sometimes you get blizzards, sometimes you get Indian summer.

I'm saying all this because September is right on the cusp between fires and blizzards or Indian summer.

I'm kinda pulling for Indian summer in September, but I know we're still in fire season. I just don't feel like breathing smoke while I'm hiking the eastern Sierra next month.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Leave the phone at home, I say


The first time I backpacked for a story was in August 1995 at Mount Whitney. Quite a walk, as I recall.

But there were things I preferred about that hike to the one I'm doing in September. Recall I'm walking with a photographer to Mendel Glacier from the east side.

When we did Whitney, we didn't have a satellite phone. For photography, we were still shooting film, not digital. It was all good. I like photos taken on film. And I like not carrying a nonfunctional chunk of weight -- i.e. the satellite phone -- in my backpack.

Cell phones? Yeah, one guy had one. At about 13,500 feet, he climbed out on a ledge and called his girlfriend in Newport Beach. Whoopee.

Now for Mendel, we're carrying a satellite phone. Again. It was an albatross on the Muir Trail hike two years ago. I expect it to function better this time, but who knows?

At least, we are under no illusions about photographs this time. On the Muir hike, we brought some kind of palm pilot and tried to send photos. Never worked. Even when we got a clear shot at a satellite, it didn't work.

Look for us. We'll be the hikers trying to locate a satellite.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

A few key words ... it's worth reading this


Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Inyo National Forest, Sierra National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument. Recognize any of those names?

OK, you recognize the marmot in the picture above, right? He's at Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. He's the one who meets everyone, begging for food.

Have I manipulated enough to get your attention? Yes?

OK, first my apologies. I'm just trying to trip a few key words out there on the Net to get you here. I did this a couple of months ago and a few people bit. It was worth a try again.

Here's what I'm trying to say: Next month, a photographer and I are walking up to Mendel Glacier where there may be the frozen bodies of two World War II airmen still in the ice. Two mummified bodies already have emerged.

Global warming and two years of drought in California make us think there's a decent possibility that we will find important parts of the plane, such as the instrument panel, which might tell us speed, altitude and bearing of the flight in 1942. Bodies would be a grisly but amazing addition.

I've spoken with relatives of those two airmen who are still missing. Believe me, folks, they want their loved ones returned for burial in their hometowns.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Even up here, you gotta read the signs


I love the sign as you leave the Inyo National Forest on the way to Mendel Glacier: Entering Kings Canyon National Park, Lamarck Col, Pets and Firearms Prohibited.

You've just climbed 3,400 feet from North Lake -- off trail for a good portion of it. You've cleared the snowfield just below the col. Now there's a sign waiting for you, like you're merging with Interstate 5 at the Grapevine.

And they're warning you not to bring your bazooka or your Doberman into the park? If you could haul your pet and your weapon up that far, then this sign is for you. If you're like 99% of the rest of the world, it really doesn't apply.

By the way, that's Mendel Glacier in the background. See what I mean about dirty, little glacier? It's kinda filthy with fallen granite. It's really kinda little.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Crampons or no?


Should you use crampons this late in the season on California's wimpy, little glaciers? Naw. No way.

That's what everyone has been telling me. Just take your trekking poles and you'll be fine.

I will. But I don't want to find myself bumping down a slope filled with sun cups and ice next month, wondering if I should have used the crampons to keep myself from slipping.

My backpacking pal, Mark Crosse, said he's not concerned. He's thinking about how cold it will get above 11,000 feet at night in September. Good point. But I'm always a cautious soul with cold -- down jacket, 20-degree sleeping bag, good gloves, good knit cap, et cetera, et cetera.

So I'm not worrying about cold, and I'm working on my quads with isometrics. I've been conditioning for the last six months. I think I'm just going to coast this month to stay fresh for this thing.

Anybody with suggestions is welcome to voice them here. If you missed what I'm doing, just read the next item. And I'll wait to hear from you.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

The rest of the story ...


Time to be up front with everyone. The photo above is where I'm headed.

I'm an environment and natural resources writer for a McClatchy newspaper, called The Fresno Bee. I'm telling you this because I am going to Mendel Glacier in the Sierra Nevada as a reporter for The Bee.

I'm going to meet author Peter Stekel, the man who found one of the frozen airmen who died in 1942. The airman's name was Ernest "Glenn" Munn, and his body was well-preserved in the ice for more than six decades. Another body was found three years ago by ice climbers. His name was Leo Mustonen.

I will be writing from the trail, using a satellite phone as we pursue the other two missing missing airmen. They were both in the front seats of this training plane when it went down, presumably in a blizzard in November 1942.

The glacier is at about 13,000 feet. The climb to reach it will be arduous.

In the next several weeks, I will explain a little about our writing project. Stekel is writing a book called "Final Flight." It is due out in 2009 or 2010.

Of course, there are many things to write about in this blog. Our approach, our reporting beforehand, our training to get in shape. If you have questions, please feel free to ask. If you have advice or comments, I would like to hear them.

This project will be anything but dull.

A small glacier is OK by me


The glacier we're climbing is kind of small and dirty. Which is tough enough for me.

There's all kinds of talus. The moraine is huge. Ankle-busting granite, ready to turn my joints this way and that.

A twin-engine training bomber crashed here in 1942. All four aboard perished. The mummified remains of one airman were found in 2005. A second one was found in August 2007.

Now, the guy who found the second body is going back in September. We're going to tag along.

That photo I have above is not the glacier. It's a col that we will climb at the Sierra crest before we reach the glacier. I'll show you the glacier soon.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Cool, dangerous and fast?


The guy had the cell phone thing stuck in his ear. He drove madly past me, jawing away with his arm draped over the steering wheel in a kind of driver chic that oozes, "I'm cool, I'm dangerous, I'm fast."

Being at the opposite end of cool, dangerous and fast, I wondered if there was any way to capture that feeling. I could have bought a phone thing to stick in my ear. But I have chronic ear wax buildup. Sign of middle age, you know.

I thought a little longer. Oh yeah, I know. I'll climb a glacier and look for the frozen, preserved bodies of military airmen who had crashed there in 1942.

Yeah, it's like that.

It's mystery. It's a glacier. It's mid-life. It's equal parts crazy and creepy. I'm in.

A photographer named Mark Crosse and I are walking up to Mount Mendel where this horrific crash took place Nov. 18, 1942. I've backpacked, hiked, snowshoed and otherwise hung out in the outdoors before. I've walked on a lot of ice and snow, but never a glacier.

There's more to tell, but I'm entering the freeway in my vehicle right now. Another sip of my French roast, and I'll blow the doors off this car driven by the guy with the cell phone thing stuck in his ear. I'll be back to this space later.
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