Emigrant + Yosemite (Sierra Nevada)

TREACHERY OF THE WHITE

When your legs vanish under you faster than a pair of telescoping trekking poles it is a jarring experience. One cannot know what lies in wait in the snowy depths: a granite trap, a sharpened stick…the teeth and claws of a mountain wilderness.

Or its ice-walled arteries: fall into fast-moving waters and you could get carried under the ice and drown. A chilling thought that gives an edge to my slow, labored progression through a corridor blanketed in this kind of white treachery.

SPRING RIVER CROSSING

You're waist-deep in the swift flow of frigid water on a balancing act with the 4 flimsy anchor points of your feet and trekking poles. Around you and within you it's all rush, all vibration...the wildly shaking carbon poles, your body's molecules assemblage points...as you strive to keep it all together.

Done, you've made the crossing! You leave the rushing water behind, while the rush of adrenaline lingers.

ENCHANTMENT FOR THY EYE ALONE

I am about to summit a 10000ft granite dome and be rewarded with a landscape of jagged peaks draped in white as far as the eye can see. Tomorrow i will enter a hidden grove of ancient bristlecone pines tucked in folds of smooth granite, an elf kingdom fairyland.

And the camera just broke?!

BEAR IN MIND

In Yosemite Valley bears have specialized in ransacking the brand/model of cars they have had success with before. Thus one finds Toyota bears, Volkswagen bears, Subaru bears… While i hope the later are busying themselves elsewhere this week, of more immediate concern is the beast 50ft away, presently on her hind legs enjoying a vigorous back-scratching with a fir sapling who no doubt will need time to recover after that. A thrilling, impressive sight.

I did not expect them at this altitude at this time of the year. She, or one of her kind, could well come upon base camp while i’m away and equipment mayhem ensue. Good to see the beast, who has caught whiff of me, decamp in the opposite direction…

A CRY FOR JUSTICE

Walking on top of one fallen Ponderosa log onto the next, onto the next, onto the next… Get me out of this maze of broken wood!

In all directions, all the way to the horizon: either charred remains or the skeletons of bark beetle ravage. What was once a vibrant forest filled with birdsongs and wandering bears is now utter devastation…inner and outer desolation.

Bring an end to this madness already: the culprit does not deserve a place on this planet.

AT THE JUNCTION OF ICE AND FIRE

Driving back through the California desert in 118 °F weather transporting ice climbing tools for a mountain range emerging from record snowpack.

Reflecting on the just experienced challenges of melting terrain underneath, smoke from a prescribed burn overhead, and a maze of desolated land — several times forcing a change of itinary, splitting and shortening the expedition. Recalling the exhilarating swift flow of white foaming rivers and the heart-sinking stillness of charred landscapes.

A summer solstice at the junction of ice and fire.