The emptiness that adventure pilot Steve Fossett disappeared into at 10:30 a.m. on Labor Day appears almost endless from the air, a rugged moonscape of mountain ridges that deepen from brown to purple before dissolving into the horizon itself. There are mountains and more mountains and, between them, canyons that hide whatever may have fallen in.
"The perspective from outside is Nevada is flat, hot, with cactus and sagebrush," said Trooper Chuck Allen, a member of the highway patrol in what, in fact, is the most mountainous state in the union. And one so empty that official highway maps warn motorists to stock up on water and fuel before venturing into the interior.
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