Posts Tagged: Mountaineering

Yosemite 2011

4 minutes to read — 844 words

Yosemite 2011
I spent the summer of 2011 working for the U.S. National Park Service in Yosemite. It was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. I was doing legal work—public land use and government contracts. My job was usually a 9-5 day during the week, but my schedule was flexible and the days were long, so I had plenty of time to explore the park. The Park Service set me up a two-bedroom house in the employee village below Yosemite Falls.

Mount Shasta

4 minutes to read — 846 words

Mount Shasta
Fourteen thousand, one hundred, and sixty-two foot Mount Shasta is a dormant volcano that rises in solitary drama in the far north of California. A few years ago, I attempted the climb with my father. We were turned back by low snow, poor conditions, and severe dehydration. Over Memorial Day weekend I tried again with a group of friends from school. Mount Shasta from Bunny Flat We drove to Mount Shasta on Friday afternoon.

Pyramid Peak

3 minutes to read — 631 words

Pyramid Peak
At 9,983′, Pyramid Peak is the highest point in California’s Desolation Wilderness. Since it is only about a three hour drive from the San Francisco Bay Area, Desolation Wilderness is the most heavily-used wilderness area in the United States. Thus exploring Desolation during the winter months has a number of advantages—not only do the snow-covered peaks make for spectacular vistas, but most of the visitors that swarm the area during the summer are kept away by colder temperatures and feet of snow.

Mount Silliman

4 minutes to read — 642 words

Mount Silliman
In late October of 2008, I led an attempt to climb Sequoia National Park’s 11,188-foot Mount Silliman as part of the Outdoor Education Program. We left Stanford on Friday evening and arrived at Lodgepole campsite a little after midnight. Mount Silliman is in the same area as a peak I climbed last spring, Alta Peak; Silliman lies a few miles to the northwest. We went to sleep almost as soon as we arrived.

Mount Sill

6 minutes to read — 1106 words

Mount Sill
Early in September of 2008, I attempted a climb of 14,153-foot Mount Sill in the Palisade Range of the eastern Sierras. About one year prior, I had tried the climb but was turned back on the second morning by inclement weather and ill health. On that trip I climbed Mt. Agassiz instead. This time I was determined to make the summit with my three friends, Kate, Whitney, and Ian. Half Dome in Yosemite Reaching the eastern Sierra from the Bay Area is difficult.

Half Dome

5 minutes to read — 883 words

Half Dome
At the end of June during the summer of 2008, I left for Yosemite with a group of Stanford Outdoors leaders. Our goal was to watch the sun rise from the top Half Dome. We left campus late on a Friday afternoon. The drive was relatively painless; there was no traffic, but we were hampered by thick smoke from the forest fires burning in hundreds of locations across the state and endless stories about pet hermit crabs.

Alta Peak

4 minutes to read — 795 words

Alta Peak
As an instructor for Stanford’s Outdoor Education Program, I led an introductory mountaineering trip to 11,204 foot Alta Peak in Sequoia National Park during May of 2008. We left the Bay Area at around 7:30 PM on Friday evening, and drove all the way to the park that night. We camped at Lodgepole, a front country campsite with a visitor center, market, flush toilets, and showers. The next morning, we woke up, broke camp, and drove to the trailhead.

Mount Agassiz

3 minutes to read — 471 words

Mount Agassiz
Shortly after I returned from Alaska in the summer of 2007, my family left for a short backpacking trip in the Eastern Sierra. My mother, my father, and I met my father’s high school friend, Chris, near the town of Bishop, California. Our goal was the 14,153 foot summit of Mt. Sill, a remote peak in the Palisade Range. We left civilization at the South Lake trail head, at 9,755 feet.

Round Top

6 minutes to read — 1277 words

Round Top
Just a few miles east of Kirkwood Ski Resort, across Highway 88 from Carson Pass, lies a mountain called Round Top. At 10,381 feet, the peak looks daunting, but it requires no technical climbing to reach the summit. I attempted to climb the peak with a group of nine other Stanford students through Stanford’s Outdoor Education Program. We stepped out of two monstrous pickup trucks into a Sno-Park at Carson Pass around 11:30 PM on a Friday night.

Grand Teton 2005

2 minutes to read — 409 words

Grand Teton 2005
One year after I climbed the Grand Teton for the first time, I returned to climb it again, this time with my parents. On my first climb, I’d taken the Exum Ridge route (5.4-5.5). This time, we would follow the path of the first ascent along the Owen-Spalding route. Grand Teton from Jackson Lake There’s a lot more hiking on the Owen-Spalding route than on Upper Exum Ridge. We walked without belay until we were around 12,000 feet.