Report on Yosemite Valley today

[Vaughn]

Preston -- no room in the van for the 11x14 or the 8x10! Might have squeezed in the 5x7, but just decided to have fun and ran a lot of rolls of TMax400 through the Rolleicord while wandering around the corners of the Valley.

Still have a year and a couple months to wait for my old geezer pass!

[Preston]

According to Caltrans and YNP today, Sonora and Tioga passes are open.

The weather in our part of the Sierra is still unsettled, so be sure to check that these roads are open before you head up.

--P

[Wayne]

How's the wingsuit action?

[dsphotog]

How's the wingsuit action?

Ooooh... Too soon.

[Drew Wiley]

One more reason to stop turning National Parks into amusement theme parks, though in this case the amusement part of it ended pretty quickly. My nephew once had to rescue one of these Darwin Award types from the face of Half Dome. That person was damn lucky someone was already on the face with ropes when his wings barely snagged a tiny tree halfway down the face. Still, with a broken hip and broken ribs, and a six-hour rescue, it couldn't have been exactly fun. For the rest of us who are mere taxpayers, that rescue only cost forty or fifty thousand dollars. But at least the dude lived to illegally jump again somewhere.

[Michael Cienfuegos]

One more reason to stop turning National Parks into amusement theme parks, though in this case the amusement part of it ended pretty quickly. My nephew once had to rescue one of these Darwin Award types from the face of Half Dome. That person was damn lucky someone was already on the face with ropes when his wings barely snagged a tiny tree halfway down the face. Still, with a broken hip and broken ribs, and a six-hour rescue, it couldn't have been exactly fun. For the rest of us who are mere taxpayers, that rescue only cost forty or fifty thousand dollars. But at least the dude lived to illegally jump again somewhere.

It serves them right to go "SPLAT!", but as you say, someone has to pick up the tab. If they survive they should be jailed, but I guess that the bleeding hearts would cry foul.


m

[Drew Wiley]

Since it's illegal, they would have to pick up the cost of rescue. Picking them up with a vacuum cleaner comes fully at tax-payer expense. But the park kinds turns a blind eye to some of these extreme sports types, because in this case, they were climbers who themselves sometimes helped with rescues. I'm personally more concerned when climbers and jumpers start damaging natural features, like giving rope burns to sensitive natural arches or towers while rappelling or bunji-jumping from them. Plus I just don't like hiking to some place like that just to encounter the boom box crowd. The key individual involved in this accident was memorialized in the SF paper with a picture of him free-climbing Delicate Arch in Utah. Somehow the term "delicate" and having someone using it as a climbing gym and leaving chalk and shoe scuffs all over it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Reminds me of what Fatali did there.

[John Kasaian]

I'm stuck this next week with a bad back. When I'm out of cyclobenzaprine, I'm out of here(I hope!)

[Drew Wiley]

Sorry to hear that, John. I'm down to the last of my big shingles scabs but otherwise to start tackling hills again. Just depends on what the light is doing tomorrow. The forecast said it was going to warm up substantially today, but it seems to be the coldest day of the year so far, so hard to say how far the fog will be drawn inland over Pt Reyes tomorrow. I've pretty much gotta flip a coin and guess whether the 8x10 or 4x5 will be most appropriate for the day. Will have a wonderful day regardless. My joints would like a little sunshine, but my camera would love another foggy softbox day. Normally I'll get about two hours of fog, lose it for awhile heading uphill, then hit it again on the ridgetops. Will know better when I visually assess the fog front in the morning while crossing the Richmond Bridge into Marin. That's when I finalize my exact hiking destination. The pack wt actually helps my back, but the lifting here at work doesn't. My helper is gone today and they trying to hire another one. So I work only so long in the cold, then get lazy for a break, like right now.

[appletree]

I have yet to go and really want to. I would love to go when there is snow on the ground. Although I hear sometimes the park is closed or much is inaccessible during this time, due to safety concerns...people getting hurt over the years. I would no doubt track down a partner and being an Eagle Scout and camping my whole life would be wise. Then again I fear I travel in October or something and it all be closed. Likewise in the Feb-Apr time. Is this in fact true or did I hear wrong?

Someone also told me if I can find an older map, often times the trails will still exist but are off the "beaten-path". Then again...one assumes when traveling the beaten path, is well, beaten for a reason.