Mt Yale P-38 crash site

[dima]

Today I went back to look for the P-38 that went down in 1944 below Mt Yale and Mt Harvard (Mt Wilson area). This was my 5th trip to find this thing, which is a bit ridiculous. The first 3 times I went to look for this thing were back in 2016. I only found a few parts, and some evidence of a salvage operation. So I assumed that the site was picked clean, and moved on with my life. Recently I stumbled on somebody else's photos that showed a more extensive crash site, so clearly there was much more to find. The 4th trip was a few weeks ago. It was a day where nothing went right, and the trip was cut short, and ended at the hospital. I kinda liked the search plan, though, so today I came back to check out the area I planned to search the last time.

I drove to Mt Wilson, biked down the toll road, and stashed the bike near the switchback SW of Mt Yale. Then I traversed N on foot. The idea was to stay at the 4200ft contour (as mentioned in one of Pat Macha's books). Previously I was above that level. The whole thing is a steep slope with lots of brush. Initially it's open enough such that you can make progress reasonably quickly, even though there's lots of poison oak. Then you hit a big gully (Harvard branch of Eaton Canyon), and past that the brush is much thicker. It was really slow going, and kinda unpleasant. Eventually I decided that I was far enough, and that it wasn't supposed to be this much of a pain in the ass. I took a break at my turnaround point



Yeah. Time for a plan B. I did find a few scattered things in 2016, and even though I looked around the area back then (3 different times!) it still made the most sense that the crash site would be close to where I found the parts. So I turned around, and headed back at a higher elevation. And when approaching the previously-found parts, I found the full crash site immediately; no searching required. What's the opposite of beginner's luck?

There's a LOT of stuff here. Full set of photos is on my server. There's lots of honeycomb-like material:



Each tube here is pretty long, so this maybe isn't structural? Some sort of cooling thing, maybe? Lots more brake disks:



This one is noteworthy because the tree at the bottom-right of the photo is growing through it. This was here for a while. Lots of stuff:



There're lots of various body parts, with some looking beefier than others:



Some of this was armored? Stuff, some with part numbers:

















More "cooling" stuff?





Getting close to the engine?



Ah yes. Crankshaft:



The other one is off to the side



Landing gear:



There was a very beat-up antler sitting among the parts, so I was able to bring home SOME souvenir:



Rather than fight the brush, I climbed a rocky gully just S of the crash site all the way to the ridge. This still had some brush, and was somewhat technical, and involved extra gain, but it still saved lots of time. Eventually I was on the ridge:



As I was climbing up, a bird was repeatedly dive-bombing into the canyon next to me. It was impressively loud. Here he is, looking for dinner:



He never crashed, so I didn't have to go find him too.

[HikeUp]

These are the best pics I've seen of the site. I briefly looked (unsuccessfully) back in '08 when the place was covered in snow.

Looking up ridge towards Yale...Harvard in background on left...

Hospital?

[Sean]

Thanks for the report and pics. Good job! The opposite of beginner's luck is expert's misfortune. But, hey, at least you got some extra exercise.

[tekewin]

Looks like hard work, but you found a ton of stuff. Nice!