Globe & Mail Article on Slesse

[gertlush]

Don't know if anybody reads the newspaper but their was an interesting article in the Focus section of Saturday's paper. Unfortunately you have to pay to access the online edition so I can't reproduce it. It's by a person who lost her father in the crash and efforts to protect the site. See what you think of the first and last sections of the article:

 

If you searh for "Mount Slesse" in the Internet, you'll soon see that people just love to climb this imposing peak in the Cascades Range near Chilliwack BC. Most call it a challenge and wax lyrically about it's natural beauty, but some also admit that they "hope to see the propeller cairn," and suggest that their fellow climbers "be respectful of any body parts you might find." I suspect their real motivation is tied to the shocking news I awoke to one morning in 1956."

 

and the end..

 

"Let us hope now, finally, all those people who persist in climbing Mount Slesse never lose sight of the fact that they are entering an eternal resting place for 62 souls who deserve to be left in peace."

 

I thought at the very least it denigrates the efforts & motivation of those who choose to climb Slesse, as I'd hope to one day.

 

Ryan

[tyree]

I definitely agree with the fact that it is a final resting place for 62 souls. I spent the night up there and was overwhelmed with a very peaceful and auspicious feeling. I had lucid dreams af these little lights floating all around me, like being in the middle of some Hubble telescope photo.

There are places in the world that possess a unique personality all to themselves, then there are some that possess a strong energy, something that stays with you. Slesse has left its mark on me.

[gertlush]

I've only been on the Nesakwatch side but that whole valley has kind of an aura about it. I think it would have it anyways but with the knowledge that there was this tragedy it adds to that feeling you get. Some places just have that atmosphere about them.

[tyree]

Yeah, the Black Hills of South Dakota come to mind. Crazy vibes there too.

[dberdinka]

Just over fifty years ago on December 9, 1956 a DC-4 crashed into the upper flanks of Mount Slesse killing everyone on board. There was never an official attempt to clean up the resulting wreckage or the bodies of those who died.

 

To a climber Slesse appears as a savage, threatening and terribly alive landscape. Imagine how it must appear to those whose lives are not vested in the exploration of our mountain-scapes! Their minds must reel when attempting to comprehend the chaos of Slesses’ topography. Only climbers have to presence of mind to become truly intimate with this terrible visage and as a result have become, in a very direct way, the custodians of Slesse and its unfortunate victims.

 

On the southeast flank of the mountain lies a memorial far more intimate than the highly visible and well-known Propeller Cairn. Its history is at best vague and most likely more myth than fact. But regardless it does exist and stands testament to climbers of another era doing their best to preserve some relics of that terrible clash.

 

I learned of it maybe ten years ago. I was on a “reconnaissance” hike, not yet endowed with the experience or confidence to actually attempt a climb of this mountain. It was late summer and the pocket glaciers below the south summit had long disappeared. The Propeller Cairn and the morainal ridge it rests on was a relatively safe place to try and relax and take in the astounding views of the myriad rock walls above.

 

I was surprised to see motion near the base of a long spur separating the south couloir from the terrific sweep of rock below the south summit. Soon I could make out a solitary figure working it’s way down the gneissic slabs towards me, and before long I was joined by a somber man.

 

This guy was a true “mountain man” far removed from the latte-drinking, Arcteryx-smothered, cubicle-dwelling mamas-boys that constitute a vast majority of modern day climbers. Double-welted leather boots over what were practically knee high wool socks matched with running shorts and an old flannel shirt. His face was obscured behind the most cliché aviator sunglasses, a wild beard and long greasy brown hair held back in a bandana.

 

He was friendly enough and we struck up a conversation.

 

Eventually I got around to asking him what he was doing up there.

 

“Well kid I’m going to let you in on something. Today I returned human remains that had been collected by a less pious acquaintance of mine. I brought them back to the Bone Cairn.”

 

I laughed, “The Bone Cairn, give me a break.”

 

He sneered, shook his head in dismissal and said, “Don’t dismiss the exceptional., there is still mystery in these mountains.”

 

I wasn’t sure what to say, I think I just sorta looked at my feet. But he was fired up and laid into a long tirade that went more or less like….

 

“Today after fourty years of snow, wind, rain and avalanche nature has done its best to clean up from the crash. Now all that’s left is a few scraps of tin, a landing strut half buried in gravel and the well-know propeller cairn. However this was not always the case.

 

Climbers of the 60’s and 70’s found much, much more scattered across the area. Aircraft debris was everywhere and evidently personal effects and human remains were not uncommon. The wreck had definitely attracted “Treasure Hunters” including some looking for a supposed fortune carried aboard the plane and it is unknown how much was carted off by these looters. However even after many years evidence was still easy to come by.

 

At some point in time climbers on their ways to various attempts and ascents collected some of this debris and carried it back to the mountain. A well protected niche in the rock far below the crash site become a shrine of sorts. Morbid, curious and ultimately respectful men created a monument where the remains of some victims could lie undisturbed in perpetuity.”

 

“You should check it out, just don’t stay too long.” With that he turned his back and trotted off down the trail. I’ve yet to run into him again or anyone like him since.

 

That afternoon I made my first visit to the “Bone Cairn”. I scrambled up the gneiss slabs then followed the right side of the rock spur until I was almost directly beneath the south summit. Several wet, mossy gashes cut into the spur below a long band of roofs. With careful examination I spotted a small cave or alcove in the side of one maybe thirty feet up. Easy scrambling and chimneying led up to the alcove.

 

It struck me as both grisly and incredibly serene. The alcove was nothing more than a small, well-protected hollow in the rock wall, three or so feet in diameter, maybe five feet deep. The middle of the alcove had been packed with a loose wall of bones. There were two generally intact skulls and a few fragments of jaws wedged neatly between a collection of long bones. Fibulas and so forth. Scattered about the front of the alcove were small fragments including a few vertebrates.

 

Beyond this wall of bones I could see a collection of other artifacts. I could make out a small pile of decaying rags, an old leather shoe and two suitcases. One of fabric ripped in half the other aluminum-like, twisted and smashed, but still latched it’s contents unseen. Already it was late in the day. It was tempting to take a souvenir but instead I left a small offering of a granola bar and hurrying back to the trailhead now very intent on reaching the car before dusk should my imagination run too wild.

 

I’m older now. Those butterflies I once felt while laying by the propeller cairn and day dreaming of someday conquering Slesse’s shear walls have been replaced by fading memories of actual ascents, details forgotten. The excitement of the unknown replaced with the melancholy of youth disappeared.

 

Over the years I’ve met several people who are also aware or have at least heard rumors of the Bone Cairn so I assume it’s no secret. This last summer on a day very similar to that first exploration ten years prior I found myself alone once again scrambling up the gneissic slabs below the south summit.

 

Sure enough between my two visits several additional objects had collected near the entrance, a rusted belt buckle with a few threads of severely decay leather still attached, what I think were the frames of a barely recognizable pair of glasses and a few bone fragments that appear to be metatarsals or something similar. Certainly nothing had been removed.

 

I sat by the entrance for some time. Sun was replaced by shade. A sharp chilly breeze swept across the rock walls. Nearby I could hear the clatter of stone fall and in the distance the occasional groan of ice straining to be released from the mountainside. The transformations of geologic time are too slow for us to perceive, Slesse was no different than it had been on my first visit. The wall of bones was no longer as orderly as it had once been, but it was clear that it would remain for a long time to come.

 

...

 

I remember once summiting a peak it the Wind Rivers. I can’t remember it’s name, it’s sits between Shark Nose and Wolfs Head. The summit was a beautiful slab of solid granite. On the very top sat three or four rocks about the size of basketballs. I grabbed one and trundled it off the overhanging east face. Immediately I felt a great guilt. Who was I to disturb these rocks that had sat there for tens of thousands of year since the last ice age? From the perspective of our frenzied and fleeting lives it is too easy to forget the scale at which the inert, material and deceased exist.

 

 

 

...

 

Edited December 11, 2006 by dberdinka

[jordop]

I read that artcile and also thought that bit about "climbers who persist in climbing" Slesse to be a bit much. Jesus, If my eartly remins were in that cirque, man, I'd want some company. See some ccol kids goin for the FFA of the East Face . . .

 

Darin that's a nice bit . . . yours? You should send that to Alpinist. Tres cool

[Weekend_Climberz]

There's another article headed to Alpinist from another notable NW author that details the FA of the NE Butt. It also is very gut wrenching in the descriptions of the scene.

[John_Scurlock]

Thanks for the outstanding post, db. Reading that has transformed my humdrum work day and caused me to reflect yet again on Slesse & the '56 crash. I have had much the same feelings as you wrote about, on each of my visits there...

 

It is good to remember that it was the heroic efforts of the climbers of the day that solved the mystery and revealed this tragedy...

[murraysovereign]

There's a new book out this fall - The Disaster on Mount Slesse: Harbour Publishing. It's written by a couple of reporters from the Vancouver Sun and/or Province who covered the story at the time. I'm trying to order a few copies for the shop, but the publisher hasn't replied to my e-mail yet.

[tyree]

That was nice Darin. You never told me bout the bone cairn. I think that climbers are some of the only people who regularly honor the final resting place of these souls. Just the fact that we are talking about it right now keeps the memories alive, thus honoring the dead.

[dberdinka]

Yeah. Guess I needed something to say, maybe I shouldn't have.....

[W]

Thanks for sharing this, actually.

When I first visited Slesse in 1995, we went too far up the logging road on the approach and ended up coming to the propeller cairn. I had known about the crash but had thought little about it until then. It became a lot more real when we found a doll, and a toothbrush.

[Bryan_Burdo]

When I climbed Navigator Wall with Pete Doorish (almost 20 years ago!??!!), we camped below the South Peak. I never saw any "Bone Cairn", but there was plenty of debris. I remember being most struck by a compact leather kit. I unzipped the top and opened it to find an electric shaver, it's cord neatly coiled around it. I thought about how some businessman had meticulously laid it out on a bed the morning of the flight. The sense of small-scale order amongst the chaos was a last flicker of humanity that we were privileged to find, and replace respectfully.

Near the top of the climb, on the third day, we noticed a massive amount of wreckage, including what looked to be a tail section, on the southern satellite summit, climber's left of the South Peak. Does anyone have information of the exact impact point of the crash? I remember being astonished at so much material being so precariously perched that high on the mountain. It looked like it must have been strongly embedded by the impact.

Finally, on the descent, there was yet more debris on the col above where we saw the wreckage, south of the South summit. It was here that, amongst some wiring and electronics, I reached down and picked up a three-inch diameter ring of metal. On it was inscribed the points of the compass. It was a floating compass, used for general navigation, usually mounted above the dashboard in the cockpit.

Considering the real serendepity in linking that route together, sometimes tenuously linking disconnected crack systems on a large and ever-steepening wall, I felt like I was drawing a bit into my personal bag of karma that trip. Amid the ruggedness of the situation, there was a benevolence of happenstance, as the weather was perfect and the route unfolded wonderfully (this karma came to a dramatic end on the East face of Steinbock a few days later, but that's another story).

 

It's hard to put a finger on any direct connection of our climb and ouselves with the tragedy, although the coincidence of the accident's occurence only a few weeks before I was born is one tiny thread. We were definitely involved in a positive psychic connection up there that weekend. I like to think that it was mainly the bond of friendship between me and Pete, which endures to this day, but if there were spirits still lingering up there, they were smiling with and upon us as we made passage.

 

 

Edited December 12, 2006 by Bryan_Burdo

[EWolfe]

Thanks for posting that. Great story, Bryan.

[dberdinka]

Awesome historical antedote Bryan. Thanks for posting. I found the Nav Wall to be the most intense experience I've had climbing in the Cascades. It's a bit reassuring to see that you and Doorish also found it to be pretty serious. Heck of an onsite FA!!

[gertlush]

Thanks for the stories. It's interesting to hear more of the history behind these routes & events.

[plexus]

Well done gents. Very eloquent and introspective Bryan and Darin.

 

My wife and I came across the remains of the small prop plane near Washington Pass a few years ago. It was a brisk October morning with painfully bright blue skies, the larches were beyond gold; they were pulsating. We came across the wreckage after climbing a couple of the Kangaroos, it was a very contemplative way to end the day. Said a little prayer and was quite thankful for the day we were able to experience.

 

I always figure I can die any moment, I just try to live a full life without fear.

[G-spotter]

I always figure I can die any moment, I just try to live a full life without fear.

 

skull skull I'm already dead. I am haunting cc.com. Boo! Scary eh? skull skull

[catbirdseat]

Dru, we can count on you to take us from the sublime to the ridiculous.

[Skookum1]

"Let us hope now, finally, all those people who persist in climbing Mount Slesse never lose sight of the fact that they are entering an eternal resting place for 62 souls who deserve to be left in peace."

 

I thought at the very least it denigrates the efforts & motivation of those who choose to climb Slesse, as I'd hope to one day.

 

I don't understand. How does it denigrate climbers to ask them to be respectful of the remains of those who died there. One was my uncle, my father's favourite brother, and although I've never been up there I know the area is held in great sanctity by members of the Families of Slesse organization, who discovered that the provincial government had not lived up to its commitment to preserve the site originally, pawning off a small roadside memorial near the Chilliwack River Road many miles away. Eventual settlement of the problem - which was what brought logging roads right into some of the area where remains were, and also made Slesse a LOT more accessible to climbers i.e. not just the hardcore - and it was to the credit of hardcore climbers that the crash was found in the first place, in the late summer after the plane disappeared. I don't understand how asking you to respect that when you are in the place denigrates you, but I do know that your disrespectful attitude - or what seems to be so - does denigrate the dead, and their living.

 

I don't understand how you being asked to respect the tragedy and the dead, and the feelings of their survivors, I don't understand how that denigrates YOU.

 

The site is actually subject now to a special amendment to the BC Cemeteries Act, and is the only official "open grave" in the province as a result of the efforts of the Families of Slesse to preserve what was left of the wild character of the site. Because of the application of the Cemeteries Act, there are stronger penalties for removing remains and other relics of the crash than would be if it was simply removal of human remains, period. When you are in the one big cirque, you are in an official cemetery of sorts; and in the minds of the families you are in an open grave.

 

Please learn to respect that. Or go find another mountain - there are lots more, after all.

[Skookum1]

I'm afraid to ask if that shaver-case had the initials H.C. on it, as chances are 1 in about 40 that it was my uncle's. Did you leave it there (as you're supposed to), or did you bring it out? If it's engraved....well, all I can ask is that you go by the Slesse Memorial down by the Chilliwack River and compare it to the list of names, and you can decided what to do with it from there.

 

Among the original findings in 1957 were bits of the pilot's briefcase, engraved in gold; it was returned to the site and buried in the main burial mound (many bodies and remains were gathered and piled, with stones piled on top in a giant burial mound/cairn. A service was held with a preacher and some of the families attended; I don't know if my father was there, actually, but I'd think he was. That's not the Bone Cairn, but it's nice to hear that that exists. It points to the presence of decency amid at least some, hopefully the majority, of people who visit the site, and maybe there is hope for humanity after all. There were stories over the years of kids from Chilliwack bringing down skulls and femurs and using rolling them around and taking potshots at them, or with them.....

 

The original impact? Somewhere up on the flank of the mountain there's a ledge, where there's still debris and some remains; something like 100 ft, or is it yards, below the summit, on the hardest part of the mountain to reach. Most of the wreckage fell down from that shelf. 50-100 yards or whatever it is to the right or left, or that much higher, and the plane would have cleared the only peak in the vicinity of that altitude, which came up on it unseen in heavy cloud and storm. Why the plane, returning because of heavy weather from the Princeton area, was on the flightpath that took it to Slesse is a matter of some conjecture but because of sensitivity over the issue among others of the Families I have agreed not to discuss the details (except to say they are there). Nobody knows what happened, and nobody really wants to know, in fact; it's too hard for some of those who remember their lost to find out more details; they've had what closure they can get, they don't need the bones disturbed, literally or figuratively; except to be given a better rest than to be left around for some people to pick up as souvenirs....

 

I may have a picture of the crash site and the debris, or can get one, but I actually came by here hoping someone might have a good picture of the main spire, or even a nice shot from the distance, say from the Vedder Canal area, to illustrate the Wikipedia article on Slesse.....

[Skookum1]

Thank you for your story on the Bone Cairn. I'm going to forward it to my cousin in Winnipeg who's visited the site. He was about 10 or so when his father died in the crash, and the first visit was overwhelming for him. He'll be glad to know that a secret shrine has been set up, where idle hands can't paw what might be his father's bones...(and maybe Uncle Harry liked your granola bar, too)...I'm afraid to ask you to describe the suitcases....

[Skookum1]

"A doll, and a toothbrush..."

 

There were only a handful of children on that flight...there's something like a 1 in 3 chance that the owner of that doll could be identified (only so many were girls). Did you keep the doll, or did you leave it up there? If you kept it, I'm sure you realize what I'm going to suggest next - either take it to the Bone Cairn next time you're up there, or try and identify the family of the victim who owned it and return it to them.....

[jordop]

50-100 yards or whatever it is to the right or left, or that much higher, and the plane would have cleared the only peak in the vicinity of that altitude

 

If they cleared that summit of Slesse they would have hit one of the Border Peaks unless they managed to bank hard north up Tamihi, but that's too much like talking about Mt. Hood

[Skookum1]

Here's one for ya....I just talked to one of my cousins in Winnipeg, and mentioned the shaving kit and suitcases mentioned in some of the posts here. The one thing he said he knew of that would identifiably be his father's was a gold signet ring given to him by his mother; it had no stone, but was a plain gold ring with a thumbnail-sized surface inscribed with "H.C." (Harald Cleven, whose name you will find on the monument down by Chilliwack River Road).

 

Obviously jewellery is the kind of thing that, if found, isn't likely to go missing and this may have wound up in a jeweller's shop in Chilliwack long ago. But if any of you climbers DO happen to find it, please consider returning it to the family, or at least secreting it at the Bone Cairn (with any finger bone it may still be attached to....).