11 August 2007 – Jeff, who is completely obsessed with making it to the Bomber, bribed John and John gladly accepted the challenge as it meant new bike parts. John is into BMX, park style biking and that is another story. It was a nice day, sun was out and now, the rest of the story.Along the way they spotted rock Ptarmigan – they hang out in gray rock and they are gray – they hang out in gray rock with white moss, they are gray with white spots – when the snow flies, they turn white to hide in the snow. While they are young you can touch them, turn them on their back and rub bellies – they will sleep at this point – trusting, fearless, cute.
Once they reached the glacier around 6PM they began walking toward the bomber crash site – someone said, you can walk on the glacier, it's not slick. They failed to mention that the first part of the assent is steep, slick, and you can lose footing on the crust, created by the sun that day, of the glacier and end up in an unknown crevasse – we recommend crampons if you can’t walk on ice crush slopes in hiking boots. Jeff and John took lots of pics – the area was littered with debris from the Bomber.
During this hike the snow had melted significantly exposing the crash site and debris. Photo’s we’ve seen on the site show a man standing by the plaque posted on the aircraft…Jeff his standing a head below the sign which is about 6 feet from the bottom of his shoes.
The man in the photo we saw On-line, was eye level standing next to the sign. The snow had melted a good 2 feet between the time he went and Jeff's trip up.
The Trek down - a needed rest. Notice the sharp little peak if you follow John's hood straight up. Just to the right of this peak is where they just came from - from there, it is another 1.25 - 1.50 miles from the peak to the Bomber.
So, Jeff finally made it to the glacier - John made it to the glacier and both arrived home around 2:00 the next morning. And then...there is next summer.
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