[Get Out and Go]

Curiousity got the best of me and I really didn't see the Construction Zone/Do Not Enter sign on this early Sunday morning. Walked the access road part way up and then cut up the slope near the Bomber cliffs to poke around the airplane wreckage, always covered with winter snow when I'm usually here.

Mission Ridge

Mission Ridge

I continued up familiar territory wondering if I shoudn't have brought my rock skis!!

Mission Ridge

I checked out my money at work at the top as well as the view.

Mission Ridge

Mission Ridge

On the way down I saw a pair of hunters and a few hikers who had the same idea as me.

[Backpacker Joe]

GOG, do you know what kind of airplane that is?

[kleet]

That must be the infamous remains of the B-24 bomber that crashed there in the '40s.....rumor is the deceased crewmembers still haunt the area. That's cool that you got to see it!

[Get Out and Go]

Information taken from Mission Ridge Press Release: "High on the mountain at Mission Ridge, the wing of a crashed WWII bomber is prominently displayed and each ski day hundreds of skiers and riders stop to rub the wing because local superstition maintains such paganism elicits heavy snowfalls. A sign beside the wing tells the story. “On a stormy night of September 30, 1944, Flight Crew 22, on a training mission from Walla Walla Army air base, found itself off course and lost above the rugged Cascade Mountain Range. They were flying a B-24 “Liberator” heavy bomber. The night was rainy and the valley enshrouded with heavy fog...and (the plane) crashed.” The Liberator failed to clear the mountain where the ski area is now located by 500 feet and all six crew members aboard were killed. In memory of that crash, and to honor those serving to protect our country’s freedom, the mountain above the crash was named Mission Peak. The ski area built upon that history, adopting such names as Bomber Bowl (an open bowl within the resort popular among intermediate skiers) and the B-24 Terrain Park (a place where kids on snowboards and twin-tipped skis continue to crash and burn)."

B-24 Wreckage

The wreckage is found directly down from the displayed wing, off the ski runs and in the trees.

[greg]

That's cool GOG. They have a 50-cal on the wall of the Mission Ridge office from the wreck, or at least used to. I've never been there except in winter. Can't wait for those slopes to get covered. New high-speed quad there

[Dean]

I appreciate that history. I never knew about the plane and how Mission Ridge got its name. Now it makes sense (Bomber Bowl,etc)

[wildernessed]

I did Misson Peak as a snowshoe last year using the Squilchuck trail to Liberty-Beehive Rd. to a obscure and blocked graded route / trail by a small lake that serves as a reservoir for Misson Ridge Ski Resort and onto the summit 6876'. Did you do the ridge from Liberty Beehive or the Cashmere area ? I did the Misson Ridge-Devils Gulch loop early spring, very nice.

[Get Out and Go]

Wildernessed, I went straight up from the ski area. I've mountain biked the Devil's Gulch loop from the bottom and up the road, descending via the DG trail.

[wildernessed]

Thanks, the summit up there is pretty cool, I would like at some time to do Wenatchee Mountain summit and the other 6k' points along the ridge, excellent views of Rainier, Adams, Stuart Range, Glacier Peak etc...

[tomastaylor]

I was under the impression Mission Peak got its name from the town of Mission (around 1892), now known as Cashmere: http://www.cityofcashmere.org/includes/historical-incl.htm

[pye]

Mission Peak is the headwaters of Mission Creek which flows into present day Cashmere and the Wenatchee River. Mission was the early name for Cashmere due to a small mission set there in the 1860s. Name was changed in the late 1800s to entice railroad development. Mission St. in Wenatchee is a one-way going north, the one-time wagon road up valley. all naming occurred well before the bomber unfortunately crashed.