(unless you take the tram)<br><br>"Toil and
pleasure, in their natures opposite, are yet linked
together in a kind of necessary connection"<br>
-Livy<br><br>Hikemonkey's likely corollary:<br><br>"Ow, my feet hurt. What
a swell view!"

Actually my feet rarely if ever hurt. It's more
like:<br><br>"Wow, I'm out of shape. Nice climb, Bob,
thanks."<br><br>I've been trail running lately and thinking about the
suffering involved in running up a hill. Sometimes the
suffering just sucks. Sometimes it's the whole point of the
exercise -- it's quite purging. I like to think about
Reinhold Messner on the summit of Everest without oxygen.
He said: <br><br>"I am nothing more than a single
narrow gasping lung, floating over the mists and
summits."<br><br>I've felt that way at 2000 feet!

My husband are looking for hikers with young
children to go on easy scrambles or trails with us and our
6-month old daughter. <br><br>It seems like all the
hikers we know don't have children and don't understand
why we have to make so many bottle and diaper
stops.And all our friends who have children think that a
trip to the mailbox constitutes of a moderate hike.
<br><br>We're from Santa Clara and will hike just about
anywhere if given enough preparation. If you're
interested, please email us at Laurann@....
Thanks.

"After losing his last job as a high school
principal, [he] moved into a broken-down ranch house on
Baker Creek. It had been abandoned when the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power bought the property for its
aqueduct to carry water from the Owens Valley to Los
Angeles. It was known that [he] lived in the house, but he
was left alone, without plumbing or electricity to
enjoy the visiting field mice, and the kitchen, its
rotten wood floor turned to sod."<br><br>Any body guess
who this was?

And Bob, why don't you tell us the story of how he lost his job?

Maybe you could relate the story since I haven't
heard that one. The other tidbit came from the foreward
of his book "Closeups of the High Sierras" that I
just picked up. Pretty amazing guy. I'll have to pick
out some more from the book to post later.

I recall that Clyde lost his job for firing a gun. I cannot remember the
situation. Is this correct or has all the altitude effected my memory!

Here's the story on losing his last
job:<br><br>"In the fall of 1924, Clyde was appointed principal
of the high school at Independence in Owens Valley.
Situated at the foot of Mt. Williamson, probably the most
magnificent of all the 14,000-footers, it was within easy
driving distance of most of the approaches to the High
Sierra. Every weekend, he would lock up his school and
dash off for the peaks. The record for 1925 shows that
he logged 48 climbs, of which exactly half were
first ascents. Only on six of the total number did he
have a climbing companion. The following year, the
number of ascents was boosted to sixty - that is sixty
that have been recorded. Clyde was exploring the range
at a rate that far surpassed the records of Brewer,
Clarence King, or John Muir.<br>However, a number of the
townspeople were not so impressed by this record. Certainly
Clyde was an excellent instructor and he controlled the
wild youths of this mountain valley like they had
never been controlled before. But a school teacher,
especially a principal, was supposed to be an important man
in the social and cultural life of the community. On
Sunday, he should be attending on of the local churches.
On Friday night, if there was a school social
function, the principal was an honored, if captive, guest.
Many of the neighbors were openly stating that
Independence High needed a principal that would act as a
principal should, rather than a crazy mountain
climber.<br>Then came Halloween of 1927. Rumor had it that the
boys were going to play many a prank on the school
facilities and it seemed that these were not to be harmless
pranks. Clyde stationed himself nearby, armed with a
.38-caliber revolver. As a carload of youths drove onto the
school grounds, he challenged them. They refused to
stop, so he fired a warning shot. Apparently the
rowdies believed that Clyde could be bluffed and kept on.
He fired a second shot, which ricocheted fragments
of lead onto the car. The hoodlums left and soon
were telling the story all over the town, taking the
whole thing as a huge joke. <br>Not so the parents -
they waited upon the sheriff and demanded a warrant
for attempted murder. The sheriff turned down this
request, saying that if Clyde had attempted murder, it
would have been murder, as he was the best pistol shot
in the county. Next a request was made for a
complaint charging illegal use of firearms. After a few
days, Clyde resigned; all charges were dropped and
Independence had traded its most colorful principal for a
teacher that would act as a teacher should
act."<br><br>-Walt Wheelock, in the Introduction to Norman Clyde's
"Close Ups of the High Sierra".<br><br>This of course
was back in the days when the folks who lived in
Owens Valley were manly ranchers, and the mountains
were a nuisance more than anything. Now that the
region relies to a great extent on the tourist trade,
they might not find it objectionable to have a
prominent official climb mountains for a hobby. Of course
he'd still be fired for brandishing a pistol, and
probably not get off as easy as he did. :)

Thanks, Bob!  I had heard the story, but didn't remember it well enough to tell
it myself.

Here's some more excerpts from "Norman Clyde
Closeups of the High Sierra":<br><br>"Clyde accompanied
the Sierra Club on their trip from Yosemite through
Evolution Valley in 1920, during which which time he made
several first ascents. It was on this trip that he
carried the first of his famous big packs. Leaving the
Valley a couple of days behind the Sierra Club and not
knowing for sure whether he could catch up with the
group, he took along sufficient food. As he swung by
Camp Curry, he noticed a platform scale, and weighed
his pack in at seventy-five pounds. The next night
was spent with a survey crew that he had met on the
trail. They seemed amazed at the size of the pack (at
the time Clyde weighed 140 pounds) and kept
commenting about it. In the morning, one of the crew
suggested that he might have trouble finding the packtrain
and suggested that he take along a few extra cans of
food that they had. Another offered a couple of other
items. As later companions were to find out, Clyde never
turned down free supplies. The group kept offering him
more, while relating the dangers of being caught in the
wilderness without food. After they had loaded him down with
an additional twenty pounds, he was allowed to go
his way. It was not until the next day that Clyde
realized it had all been a gag to see how much he could
carry, but it is still a question as to which side came
out ahead with the gag."<br>-Walt Wheelock<br><br>"I
always had to reduce my load of equipment to the bare
minimum to keep up with Norman. He could carry monumental
loads which included such items as a pistol, a shoe
cobbler's outfit, sewing equipment, books, tools and
kitchenware. Much of this seemed unnecessary to me.<br>Once he
visited us at our home in Los Angeles. The back end of
his car was piled high with camping gear and Norman
admitted there was a mouse living in the back of his
automobile. He wasn't able to catch the mouse although his
experiences trapping martens in the High Sierra during the
dead of winter were quite successful."<br>-Glen Dawson

Planning to backpack from Mineral King to Whitney
Portal this summer. It looks like it would be an
interesting cross country excursion to leave the JMT/HST at
Guitar Lake, north past Arctic Lake, and up to the north
ridge of Mt Whitney. Would this join the Mountaineer
Route at that point? Can it be done without technical
gear? Is there a map or description of this route?
Thanks.

From Arctic Lake to the Whitney-Russell saddle is
an easy cross-country hike. From there, the North
slope of Whitney is class 2-3 to the top. No technical
gear required. The Mountaineer's Route meets the north
slope just under (and to the north) of the summit. If
you plan to descend the Mountaineer's Route, you may
need an ice axe in early season if there is much snow.
Otherwise it is a class 3 climb (no technical gear needed).
If you don't plan to climb Whitney, the easiest way
down is to go through the Whitney-Russell pass (class
2 to Iceberg Lake). Note that this is not the
lowpoint of the saddle, but a bit to the south (towards
Whitney).<br>For a more complete description of the Whitney
Routes,
see:<br><br><a href=http://members.xoom.com/snwburd/secor/whitney.html
target=new>http://members.xoom.com/snwburd/secor/whitney.html</a>

I added links to my list of Sierra Peaks (the SPS
list + some additional ones) so you can locate any of
the listed peaks online. (courtesy of Topozone).
Posted here and in the "Links" section of "Our
Pages":<br><br><a href=http://members.xoom.com/snwburd/peaks.html
target=new>http://members.xoom.com/snwburd/peaks.html</a><br><br>Happy Climbing!

Thanks Bob - I find it very useful to be able to
look at all the info you have on that page with just a
click. The topo links are great! <br><br>Since I didn't
find it obvious at first, click on the elevation to
get to the topo.

Awesome! I hope you had an automated way of doing
that...but in my experience, it often takes more effort to
automate such a task than to just do it the simple way.
<br><br>You've made a really unique reference list that others
should link to. It's nice that "topozone" URL's have the
lat/lon in easily parsible form -- when topozone goes
belly-up, you will still have the coords in
theory!<br><br>Got my first backcountry ski trip planned this
weekend. My fiancee's brother is a backcountry ski ranger
in Yosemite, and his place of residence is the NPS
hut at Badger Pass ski area. So guess where I'm
staying friday and saturday! Should be a stellar weekend
to ski...<br><br>-morgan

I had to enter the coords by hand, but the HTML
file is put together with a script. That lets me
update it and change it fairly easily.<br><br>Hikemonkey
and I are also going to be in Yosemite this weekend.
We'll be down in the valley instead of up at Badger
Pass. Maybe you'll see us as you peer over the edge
from Dewey Point. :)<br>We'll have snowshoes and
climbing gear, but no promises this time on what we're
going to accomplish. Sunday brunch at the Ahwanee is
about all we can say for sure. :)

"I ought to mention a little item. The squirrels
were very thick around our San Juan camp - they came
out of their holes to eat the barley near our mules.
Guirado killed seven at one shot with the shotgun, and
Peter, one morning, shot twenty-one in four shots. The
morning we left, while we were waiting for Averill, as I
sat making some calculations, I kept my revolver by
my side to shoot at the squirrels when they came
out. I killed five in thirteen shots, so you see I am
getting to be quite expert with the
'instrument'"<br><br>- William Brewer, from "Up and Down
California"<br>August 2, 1861

Congratulations! I made a recommendation to feature Sierra Scrambles as the Site
of The Week and they featured it in the new newsletter. Nice Work Snwburd!

Whew! Long weekend, but good. Resort skied
saturday, and took a small backcountry trip on sunday.
Breaking trail uphill through 1-2 feet of fresh snow can
be tiring! But swooshing down through that beautiful
deep powder is more than worth the effort.<br><br>Any
problems getting out of the park? We go out on 41... There
was snow on the ground at Oakhurst, which is 3000'
elevation. On the way out, there was a small tree partially
down in our lane. Of course a subaru was coming up at
the same time. How I managed to avoid hitting him is
beyond me.<br><br>-morgan

Whew! Long weekend, but good.<br><br>On Friday
Bob (aka Snowburd) and I got up early to snowshoe up
the trail to half dome. I wasn't feeling too perky;
I'll blame it on the altitude. It turns out that to
get to the top of Nevada Falls in the winter, you
first have to ascend the John Muir trail almost all the
way to the elevation of the top of Nevada Falls, then
descend to the top of Vernal Falls, and then climb the
mist trail to the top. Whew! This is all to prevent
visitors from getting bonked on the head with ice fall --
a reasonable precaution because as soon as the sun
hit the valley walls, the ice started falling. It was
highly cool.<br><br>We didn't need our snow shoes until
we reached little yosemite valley. Then we slogged
on up toward half dome. I stopped to turn around
about 1/4 mile shy of the junction of the half dome
trail and the muir trail. Bob, more energetic than I am
for sure, kept climbing to the camp sites just below
the granite stair case. He's an iron man.<br><br>It
was an incredibly beautiful sunny day, we saw no one
one the trails until we were almost back to the
bridge at the bottom of the Muir trail. As the sun
started to sink, grey clouds that were collecting over
half dome took on a rosy hue, and the subtle alpenglow
on the back side of the dome made for an amazing
sight.<br><br>The next day we got up early to walk up the upper
Yosemite falls trail. The trail was closed past Columbia
Point due to rock fall danger. So instead, we walked
over the boulder field to the bottom of yosemite falls
where we dropped our stuff in a cave, put on our rain
gear, grabbed our ice axes, and went to have a look at
the snow cone underneath the falls. It was highly
cool, somewhat scary, and very wet.<br><br>That
afternoon we went rock climbing on the manure pile
buttress. Cool name. I chickened out on the first lead, but
Bob's bold climbing gave me the courage I needed to
lead the second pitch -- my first lead where I placed
my own protection. Then we walked off ... we don't
move too fast when we do technical climbing, and the
sun was starting to set. The afternoon was partly
cloudy and the south-facing rock was pleasantly cool to
climb on.<br><br>Sunday morning the big dump of snow
finally came, so we went for a walk on the valley floor.
It was quite beautiful, snowy, and misty. We could
hear lots of snow pouring off the valley walls.
<br><br>We decided that as long as we were already wet, we'd
put the chains on the Saturn before we showered and
packed up. Of course, the sun came out and by the time
the car was loaded the sky was blue and the roads
were clear. After the obligatory brunch at the
Ahwanee, we hit the road for home. 120 was, of course,
perfectly dry so after a few miles we took off the
chains.<br><br>Naturally, we immediately drove into a snowstorm but, being
from the midwest and highly annoyed by the chains, I
said screw it and we drove on. The fun adrenaline of
driving twisty mountain roads in the snow was augmented
by the knowledge that I would get a ticket if I slid
off the road or got in an accident. Fortunately the
Saturn was solid and stable on the snow, and once we got
below 4000 feet, the snow turned into
rain.<br><br>There was no traffic on the drive home. Delightful!

Michael gave a swell account of our adventures.
There are lots of pictures that I will post in the
future as well when it stops snowing and I get some time
to write some more details including a dissertation
on that infamous hiker's nemesis, "ass-on-fire".
:)<br><br>I have to say, it's a lot of fun hiking around in
the snow. As long as I don't have to sleep in it.
Brrr.<br><br>I did upload one picture to the club home page as a
teaser. I have to go pack as I'm leaving Wednesday for
Snowbird. (And you wondered where "snwburd" came from...)
Snowboard and snowshoes, but no skiis. I'll try to have fun
all the same. :)

> As long as I don't have to sleep in it.
Brrr.<br><br>And you call yourself a real man? Hah! You didn't
deserve to bag Dick's Peak! Maybe you should have tried
Blossom Mountain or Infant Buttes! :)

Thank you very much, Snwburd.  Your description convinced my wife to give it a
try in August.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Thanks again.

"[It] lies about four or five miles north of this
point. No one was inclined to accompany me on the climb,
all dreading the labor. So the next morning, August
20, I started for the ascent alone. It was very early
and cool, frost lying on the grass by the river, but
not on the hillside. I climbed a steep hill; in fact,
it was all climb, but not so hard as I had expected,
for in four hours I was on the summit with barometer,
bag with thermometer, hammer, lunch, and botanical
box. The day was fine, not a cloud in sight, the air
very clear, though of course hazy in the distance. I
remained on the top over three hours.<br>The view is the
grandest in this part of the Sierra. On the east, four
thousand feet beneath, lies Lake Tahoe, intensely blue;
nearer are about a dozen little alpine lakes, of very
blue, clear, snow water. Far in the east are the
desolate mountains of Nevada Territory, fading into
indistinctness in the blue distance. South are the rugged
mountains along the crest of the Sierra, far south of
Sonora Pass - a hundred peaks spotted with snow. All
along the west is the western slope of the Sierra,
bathed in blue haze and smoke; and beyond lies the great
plain, which for 200 miles of its extent looks like an
ill-defined sea of smoke, above which rise the dim outlines
of the coast ranges for 150 miles along the horizon,
some of them over 150 miles distant. It is one of
those views to make a vivid and lasting impression on
the mind.<br>I was back at the house by sunset. All
were surprised to find me no more tired, but the fact
is, I have never felt in more vigorous health and my
weight is reduced to good walking condition. I am now
less than 140 pounds."<br><br>-William Brewer,
1863<br><br>Which Sierra peak is featured here?<br><br>Here's a
link if you give
up:<br><br><a href=http://www.homestead.com/hikemonkey/Desolation1.html
target=new>http://www.homestead.com/hikemonkey/Desolation1.html</a>

I'm guessing Mt. Tallac. In order to have a good
view to the south, you'd have to be pretty far south,
and I think Tallac is the most commanding point in
that area.<br><br>Speaking of Tahoe, we'll be
honeymooning there from 3/19-3/22. Looking to ski every day,
and definitely to take a backcountry trip in the
nearby wilderness. Wish I had more time to research.
I'll parse your earlier posts to see what we're up
against.<br><br>Morgan

"I'm guessing Mt. Tallac."<br><br>Wrong!

Not Mt. Tallac, but a good guess. That would
actually make a fine winter ascent. Unless you're really
ambitious and want to try for Dicks Peak. You might not
still be married when you're through, however.
:)<br><br>Congrats on the wedding. How come you didn't invite the
lot of us? If you post a picture from the wedding,
I'll post a virtual gift. :)

Well, I've worried about Kim getting "mountain
envy", but we've climbed in Yosemite in plain view of
Cockscomb without any problem. :) (Mental note to self:
pull mind from gutter) <br><br>In all seriousness, I
bought 3 7.5' topos for the Desolation Wilderness
region: Emerald Bay, Homewood, and Rocks-something. Also
got a nice shaded relief map of Yosemite. Those of us
in the SF area have unique access to the USGS map
room. It's on Middlefield Road in Menlo Park, just
north of Willow Road (away from Palo Alto). Problem is,
the hours it's open are not convenient for people who
work "normal" jobs. They have a lecture series (once a
month, I think) and an open house once a year, and they
extend the maproom hours to coincide.<br><br>Regarding
the wedding...invite this surly bunch o'
scramblers??? No way! :) But for those of you interested in
crashing it, show up at the Ahwanee around 5pm for the
reception. The ceremony will be outside (near
Superintendant's bridge, across from Chapel) at 1pm, or more
likely, we'll be holed up (all 36 of us) inside our cabin
at the Ahwanee, hiding from the rain! And you can
bet that the pictures will be online, in the same
sterile format that I've filed my other pictures in...
We'll see if my mother's new $900 digital camera can
match the results obtained by the overpriced
photographer we've hired!<br><br>-Morgan

Brewer and Hoffmann are camped at the head of
Lyell Canyon, about 9 miles from Tuolumne
Meadows:<br><br>"July 2 [1863] we are up early. First, a hasty and
substantial breakfast, then we prepare to climb the highest
peak back. The frost lies heavy on the grass, and we
are some distance before the sun peeps over the hill.
Over rocks and snow, the last trees are passed, we get
on bravely, and think to be up by eleven o'clock. We
cross great slopes all polished like glass by former
glaciers. Striking the last great slope of snow, we have
only one thousand feet more to climb. In places the
snow is soft and we sink two or three feet in it. We
toil on for hours; it seems at times as if our breath
refuses to strengthen us, we puff and blow so in the thin
air.<br>After over seven hours of hard climbing we struck the
last pinnacle of rock that rises through the snow and
forms the summit - only to find it inaccessible, at
least from that side. We had to stop at 125 or 150 feet
below the top, being something over 13,000 feet above
the sea, the barometer standing 18.7 inches. As we
had named the other mountain Mount Dana, after the
most eminent of American geologists, we named this
Mount Lyell, after the most eminent of English
geologists.<br>The view from our point was the most desolate we had
yet seen. All my adjectives are exhausted in my
former descriptions, yet this surpassed them all for
sublimity. A high precipice, perhaps one thousand feet
nearly vertical, lies on the south side of the dome,
forming part of a great amphitheater a mile across, of
which two other similar granite needles form part of
the sides.<br>We got back nearly used up, and were
not long out of our blankets."<br><br>William Brewer,
'Up and Down California"<br><br>Mt. Lyell is rated
class 3, but without crampons and ice axe, it can be
quite a bit tougher, particularly early in the season.
Had they attempted the climb a few months later, it
seems likely they would have been successful.
<br><br>Mt. Lyell was first climbed in 1871 by John B.
Tilestone.<br><br>127 years later, I had my
turn:<br><a href=http://members.xoom.com/snwburd/trip_reports/lyell.html
target=new>http://members.xoom.com/snwburd/trip_reports/lyell.html</a>

OBITUARY FOR JULES M. EICHORN<br><br>After 88
years of enjoying the beauties of the Sierra Nevada
range and<br>the delights of Bach, Beethoven and
Brahms, Jules Marquard Eichorn died<br>peacefully at home
in his sleep, Tuesday, February 15, 2000. He
was<br>born February 7,1912, to Hilmar and Frieda Eichorn,
both German<br>immigrants. Though frail and often sick
in his childhood, he learned to<br>enjoy walking on
Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County on Sundays with
his<br>parents and brother, John Peter and sister, Eleanor. His
parents also<br>strongly encouraged his clear musical
talent; at an early age he<br>studied violin at the San
Francisco Community Music School under the<br>tutelage of
Gertrude Field, his future teaching mentor. His first
piano<br>teacher was Ansel Adams, of future photography fame;
Jules was his first<br>pupil. Their friendship was to
last a lifetime. Ansel also introduced<br>Jules to the
high Sierra through the 1927 Annual Outing, ascending
Alta<br>Peak, Jules' first mountain climb at the age of 15. To
continue to pay<br>for his piano lessons from Ansel, Jules
washed prints in the Adams's<br>family
bathtub.<br><br>In 1929, Jules graduated from Lick-Wilmerding High
School in San<br>Francisco and continued to teach piano
at the Community School for 50<br>cents a lesson.
Then his amazing life as a pioneer rockclimber
began,<br>first in the summer of 1930 in the Tetons and after
much practice<br>climbing in Berkeley, California, the
Sierra Nevada with its many<br>unclimbed peaks. In 1931
he made the first ascent of the 2400' East<br>Face
of Mt. Whitney, then Thunderbolt Peak in a
frightening lightening<br>storm, then numerous ascents in the
Minaret range, one later to be named<br>Eichorn Minaret.
However, the climb for which he is most famous is
the<br>1934 ascent of the Higher Cathedral Spire in Yosemite
with Dick Leonard<br>and Bestor Robinson. Here, for
the first time, rope, pitons,<br>carabiners, and
dynamic belays were used to ascend this 700'
granite<br>needle. The climb signaled the beginning of all future
high-angle, big<br>wall climbing in North America. In 1934 he
helped locate the body of<br>Walter Starr, Jr. (Pete
Starr), the writer-pioneer killed climbing alone<br>in
the Minarets. For his efforts, Walter Starr Sr.
provided Jules with<br>a scholarship to U.C, Berkeley. In
the early 1940s he trained the<br>National Park
Service rangers in Yosemite to rescue injured or
stranded<br>rock climbers. After W.W.II, he took groups of teenage
boys into the<br>High Sierra on mountaineering
adventures with the greatest mountain man<br>of his time,
Norman Clyde.<br><br>His music life paralleled his
mountain life. In 1934, he entered U.C.<br>Berkeley and in
1938 graduated with a degree and credential in music.
<br>For the next 35 years, he taught instrumental,
orchestral and choral<br>music in the Hillsborough Schools
District, near San Mateo. His<br>students remember him as a
particularly gifted teacher.<br><br>Jules married Sarah
Beckman in 1937, and they had six children. <br>Divorced
in 1957, he married Kay Calderhead in 1960; they had
a child<br>and Kay's daughter by a former marriage
joined the household. That<br>marriage dissolved in
1973. In 1982 he married Shirley Lhyne, who with<br>her
three children, remained with him until his
death.<br><br>His gift to the world was his great love of the
mountains and music and<br>an extraordinary ability to
share these with those around him. "Music<br>and the
mountains; they're the greatest," he liked to say.<br><br>On
March 18 at 3:00 PM, a memorial music service will be
held at the<br>Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2124
Brewster Ave., Redwood City. A<br>second mountaineering
memorial will be held May 20 at the Eichorn<br>Memorial
Grove in Big Basin State Park at noon. Please
call<br>510-524-9473 for directions. Contributions in his name may be
made to<br>the following: Hidden Villa, 26879 Moody
Rd., Los Altos Hills, CA<br>94022; Sempervirens Fund,
Drawer BE, Los