KallMeKris

But even with all that information, there's still the question as to how exactly they got there.

How did they end up nine miles from a van?

And how did the van end up where they were going?

And with Mahoud's help, we have a pretty good idea.

And the answer starts two weeks earlier on a mountain road in the Panamint Range.

Because the pass Cornelia wrote about in the guest log is known as Mengel Pass.

And Mengel Pass, as any park ranger or experienced desert traveler could have told them, is not a road.

It is one of Death Valley's most technical demanding four-wheel drive routes, a trail through boulder fields, loose rock, and steep grades that require high clearance and low range four-wheel drive, and an experienced driver who knows exactly what they are getting into.

And the trail climbing toward it from the valley side earns its difficult rating through sheer accumulated hostility.

And the surface is a mixture of loose rock, embedded boulders, deep ruts, and sections of exposed bedrock where the trail narrows to a width that requires precise tire placement.

And the grade in certain sections is steep enough that a vehicle without low range four wheel drive and meaningful ground clearance will simply lose traction and stop or begin sliding backward.

An experienced driver in a V8 Land Rover Defender with locking differentials, a two-speed transfer case, and tires aired down to 25 PSI has written that crossing the pass required all of that firepower.

And Tom Mahoud put it simply, saying, quote, a Plymouth Voyager could not surmount Mengel Pass.

The vehicle had 5.3 inches of ground clearance, highway tires, a front-wheel drive automatic transmission,

and no traction control," unquote.

But the map showed a line through the mountains and a line through the mountains looked like a way through.

So Egbert made that choice and the family made a significant distance up toward the pass before the terrain defeated them.

And at some point, Egbert would have felt the vehicle grounding out on the rocks.

and would hear the undercarriage scraping and felt the front wheels spinning without purchase on the loose surface.

And at some point, the calculus would have become very clear.