Buried in Snow

Digging

Fuselage

Tail Section

Pilots Compartment

Back down the Mountain

Going Home

"We found a few personal effects but there were no men and it was both impossible and hopeless and exceedingly dangerous to stay longer than we had to.

We could hear ice over us cracking constantly and it would only take a whim of nature to kill us all. One careless step and the crampons would dislodge a handful that would be an avalanche in a few hundred feet. Frankly, we took a vote on it and decided to get the hell out of there."

"The climb up was a nightmare of screaming muscles and lungs crying out for air that wasn't there. It was in that climb that 5 of us, the last 5 to leave, felt the brush of death. Close to the top, we had to climb several hundred feet under this overhang of ice that looked like a rifle bullet would bring it down. We had just passed under it, all 5 of us, and were about fifty yards above it when it let go. It took the tail, wreckage and all, and carried it right down the 11000 feet to be buried beneath it"

From Everett Cook's letter to his mother.

The plane had crashed into the mountainside less than 500 feet below the summit of the 12,160 foot peak. It broke apart and tumbled about 1200 feet down the icy slope.  Except for one engine which lodged at the point of impact, the remainder of the wreckage was covered in about 10 feet of snow.

The plane was no more than several piles of twisted metal, barely recognizable and buried in deep snow. Members of the party dug out parts of the fuselage and part of a wing. The tail section was separated from the body of the plane and smashed almost flat. They dug for 3 days, searching for some trace of the 19 men who had lost their lives.  

The men finally gave up the search and started back  from the mountain. Due to severe  winter conditions, most of the equipment was left at the various camps. Years later, Park employees went back up into the region and hauled out all the abandoned equipment.

Forty-eight days after the expedition began, the last of the party reached Wonder Lake and finally the Mount McKinley Hotel. They brought with them the pitifully few personal items they found buried in the snow. From there, the men were flown out to Anchorage.

Mt. Deception, finally named after the expedition, kept her dead - no bodies were ever found. Exhaustive searching only turned up a few personal items; a cap, a overnight bag, 2 playing cards, an army blanket and the furlough papers of one of the soldiers going home on leave.

50 years later, a monument to the 19 men was built on the highway from Palmer/Wasilla to Fairbanks to commemorate the 19 men who were lost on that mountain in 1944.

" The expedition was definitely a success, even if we didn't get the men out. If we had found them, we would have stayed to get them out, and you know what would have been our reward - Death! And we didn't miss it far. " Everett Cook.