Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports First family visit to N15570 gamblers special wreck site.

On August eighth to the eleventh I guided the first group of family to the wreck site,Tayler Baldwin Koenig and Her father son to Brian Kelly made the brutal ascent to the site. The entire site is free of snow and bare, many new items were discovered including the fifth prop blade leaving one more missing. I climbed way up the mountain side across the canyon from the site and took photos and searched for any evidence the aircraft came into contact with the other side of the canyon causing it to become inverted causing the wings to end up on the wrong sides of the aircraft. At one time, the left wing was all the way up the cliff right under the impact site. It slid down and around lookers right of the impact spot. The other wing was next to the main debris and later moved away from snow melt. The remaining tail section was moved by helicopter to access the wreckage. KSBY NEWS outof Paso Robles, California did an interview with Tayler Koenig and it airs tonight at six o'clock. Tayler and her father trained very hard and made the hike, spent two days at the site. Nobody has signed the register since 2010, and it seems nobody has been to the site since I went up last year.

To see an album, please send a friend request to Taylors Aviation Archaeology on Facebook.

Hi Taylor


I have read posts about the Gamblers Special wreck but have never personally seen it and chances are I might not get up that way so thank you for sharing your trek to this wreckage site. Bummer for the gamblers. I can't remember who or how many passengers were on board...I will have to go back and read the posts in this thread and others...Thanks for the photos in the picture gallery....maybe if I look closely I will see vague outlines of the spirits of the gamblers playing a hand of poker ... sippin' whiskey and smokin' stogies.

Hello thanks for your interest, if you go to face book and look up "taylors aviation archaeology you can see a full album of the site, I have been to the site three times and I will tell you this there is a very strong energy at the site and it is an extreamly sacred place. 35 people lost their lives, 32 passengers and three crew.It crashed on 2/18/69 and wasn't found till 8/8/69. An air force HH 43 search and rescue crashed at the site as well during recovery efforts on 8/10/69, I am at the end of writing a complete story of the history of the HNA event, the crash site is located high up in the sierras and is only accessible about two months a year and is extreamly difficult to get to and nobody tells the location