FOSSETT HIMSELF WOULD probably have found it pretty cool that he and the Bellanca could still disappear somewhere in the Lower 48, that it was still wild enough down there. He also would likely have approved of Donato's sporting search methods. "My competitive nature," Fossett wrote in his 2006 autobiography, Chasing the Wind, "combined with the methodical use of statistical probabilities, added up to a winning formula."

Donato's biggest challenge was selecting a search area. He spent the winter studying maps and talking with pilots, aeronautical engineers, and search-and-rescue experts, as well as "Clairvoyant Kim" Dennis, a Calgary medium who'd supposedly reached out to Fossett in the spirit world and discovered he'd crash-landed in a marsh.

Ultimately, he decided that Fossett was most likely "on the edge of the Sierra Nevada, where difficult winds, steep drainages, and generally more dense vegetation could conceal the wreckage." In May, Donato hired a pilot to fly him over this area, concluding that, because Fossett had many hours of flying gliders in the area, famous for massive thermals, and had, Donato heard, told people at the Flying M that he planned to fly Highway 395, the aviator may have been vectoring toward Yosemite-in the vicinity of Amelia Earhart Peak. Torn between an area to the north, around Bridgeport, and a stretch of wild terrain to the south, closer to the national park (and near where the wreckage would ultimately be found). Donato chose north.

This is where we find ourselves during the first team briefing, sitting under an easy-up tent in base camp-the Bridgeport RV Park-under a waxing moon. Donato has assembled an A-team of jocks. In addition to "Turbocock" Trebilcock, a former Canadian ultramarathon national champion also known as "Carpenter Paul" for his role on the Canuck version of TV show Trading Spaces, there's Jim Mandelli, a Lions Bay, B.C., structural architect and veteran of the Raid Galoise; Derek Caveney, a 31-year-old Toyota scientist and expert mountain biker; Greg Marshall, 30, a high-school teacher who went to grade school with Donato; and Gary Hudson, 26, a massage therapist and world-class duathlete. Supporting the team is the lone American, 41-year-old Greg Francek, 41, a former Primal Quest race director and Amador County, California, search-and-rescue deputy who's been confined to field support after a fall from his roof; base camp manager Keith Szlater, 54, a Calgary-based search-and-rescue expert; and Tyler LeBlanc, a 24-year-old Whitehorse paramedic toting a kit full of drugs and bandages, just in case.

"We're looking for plane wreckage," Donato says as the team shovels in spaghetti, carbo-loading for the day ahead. "We're not looking for a body." Everyone nods. And no photos when we find him, he continues. "It's about respect."

Donato sketches out the week ahead. Every morning at the RV park, we'll wake at dawn for breakfast-during which Donato will blast "Run to the Hills" from his laptop while we eat oatmeal-and, at 7:00 sharp, Team Alpha will load into Mobile One (Jim Mandelli's Xterra) and motor out to good Steve Fossett territory. There, we'll fan out like so many bright boomerangs, checking our 20s on family-band radios, and trying our damnedest to find an airplane. Through it all, the team would be recording their heart rates for a study for Donato's Ontario alma mater, McMaster University, on the physiological effects and caloric requirements of running around looking for a dead guy in a plane.

What nobody brings up is the possibility of not finding Fossett. These athletes are used to winning, and they've visualized success, practiced finding Fossett in their minds. As a leader, Donato exudes not hope but rather probability and relativity, and when it comes down to it, he can play himself in the movie. He put himself through McMaster in part by modeling for Harlequin romance covers-naughty-dancing with comely PhotoShop partners on Beyond Daring and holding a baby and smiling on An Honorable Texan, as if he just found the little guy in the woods and, hey, no prob, it's what I do.

Still, the pressure is on Donato. Everyone's paid their own way here and given up vacation time for the cause. Hopes are high-not just for the glory of solving the Fossett mystery or for the looming documentary being filmed by Donato's fraternity brother Lindsay Robles but for the promise of Adventure Science itself. Adventure racing, poised to go big when Survivor producer Mark Burnett began airing EcoChallenge races on the Discovery Channel in the nineties, has faded from the primal-time radar, written off as a hyperactive corporate team-building exercise that wasn't very television friendly. But what if that exhilaration, that sense of mission, could be applied for good? Even if Team Adventure Science didn't find a stick of evidence, they might still spawn something of a new extreme sport.