A bit of history

RIVERTON, WY - - Friday, we were meandering our way somewhere on a scenic back road in the Medicine Bow National Forest.  The cloud cover was dropping as was the temperature.  (There's still plenty of ice covering the small lake in the bottom center of the photo.  The pull out where we stopped had an info board about the Snowy Range Mountains and 12,000'+ Medicine Bow Peak (to the left). 
     A small plaque nearby served to honor 66 individuals  who perished in 1955.  Interest piqued, I checked Google.  United Airlines Flt. 409 left Denver headed to Salt Lake.  The Douglas DC-4  was prop-driven and assigned a flight plan at 10,000' - - plenty of altitude for the surrounding mountains if you stayed on course.  It is believed that the pilots, 80-minutes late at take off, decided on a short cut, and (apparently due to a faulty altimeter)  flew head on into Medicine Bow Peak.  It took five days on the steep, snowy slopes to remove the remains.  At the time, it was the deadliest plane crash in U.S. commercial aviation history.