When six tons of pot crashed into Lower Merced Pass Lake

I saw this posted on another site yesterday...


AIRPLANE
A Modern Gold Rush
By Kief Hillsbery

Everyone knew that a Lockheed Lodestar had crashed into one of the high country lakes, and its cargo was hardly a secret. The word was that tons of dope lay submerged in the Lower Merced Pass Lake, just below timberline in the Clark Range. In early Febuary a Customs Service helicopter began shuttling between the lake and Yosemite Valley, and agents unloaded the big, heavy bundles in El Cap Meadow. just a few yards from the road. When the noisy activity ceased two days later, people assumed the operation had succeeded in recovering all the contraband. It hadn't. But no one outside the federal agencies knew this...


http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=68674

There is a great chapter on this incident in the book: Off The Wall: Death In Yosemite by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Charles R. "Butch" Farabee, Jr. There were a group a salty climbers who made out like banits on the dope from the wreakage. This is a great read by tha way. It documents all of the unnatural deaths in the Park's history.

BBB, thanks for the link. It was an entertaining read.

Boomtown, thanks for the review on that book. I had wondered if it was any good.

The article is mostly accurate.There was a whole lot of money flowing,the climbers actually did leave tips and the Mountain Room was alive and hopping like never before.At the beginning the price was way cheaper than $400/lb.Free for a lot of waitresses willing to make up bunches of brownies in the Annex cabins across from C4.Before the mounties started coming around it was hard to escape the smell of weed mixed with gasoline in the employee housing areas.From what I was told Airplane tasted like crap.An intersting time.

That link is loaded with Trojan viruses; update your computer protection. I read Nevada Barr's, "High Country" but I didn't know it was based on reality.

That tread is just an orphan, this is the real one:

1977 Airplane Crash in Yosemite
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/73572/1977-Airplane-Crash-in-Yosemite

Drama queens....

Quote
QITNL
That tread is just an orphan, this is the real one:

1977 Airplane Crash in Yosemite
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/73572/1977-Airplane-Crash-in-Yosemite

Drama queens....

I've been slowly making my way through that one. There seem to be hundreds of replies, some of which are fascinating (and others not-so-fascinating). I like in the first thread where the author of the article eventually chimes in and basically says he doesn't care if people are reprinting his article without permission.