I still own a tube tent and sometimes throw it in the bottom of the pack when I'm out on
a steep day hike in the High Country in so-so weather - just in case I twisted an ankle or
ran into someone else who did. But I'm still having a lot of trouble visualizing this car concept thing. Seems that cars were necessary to the invention and use of view cameras.
Just looked up the authoritative biography of Timothy O'Sullivan on the internet. Seems he
drove his Mercedes to Page Utah, then over to Lee's Ferry, where John D. Lee pushed it
onto a barge of lashed-together cottonwood logs ... and then from there he went down
the Colorado River with all his camera gear nice and dry in the car trunk. Wonder what kind
of car W.H. Jackson used.
Even RR, the better naturally talented climber, mellowed with Warren in later years, acknowledging his ballsy adventurous ascents. He was an unlikely (and sorely missed) force of nature.
Back to "campfire stories" (a much earlier post), I shared a few (campfires) with Warren, et. al. Here's one of my favorites, which perhaps exemplifies the admirable contrarian spirit of the man. Warren always wanted to apply grease to "Firefall Wall", a climbing route he first ascended, which closely followed the path of the once famous Firefall. He would station an accomplice at Glacier Point, who would yell down, "Hello, Camp Curry". Warren would be below, match in hand, answering , "Hello, Glacier Point". From on high, would come the final report, "Let the fire rise!"
FYI: I participated in shoving red fir coals off of GP during the Firefall's last year in the winter of '68.
I am the source.
I remember watching the fire fall -- and afterwards getting separated from my family on the way back to our campsite...wandering around the campground totally lost and confused until finally found by my Dad (and hero!) Late 1950's.
These days I tend to take a couple of light-weight tarps (and what we use to call parachute cord) and construct my own shelter.
My own insights of Warren Harding were from an ex-girlfriend of his from beck in them thar
days, who worked for our company here, as a much much older gal of course, and a colorful character in her own right. One of my nephew's favorite tricks was to throw a
headlamp off El Cap and let off a scream just as the tourist "geen dragon" wagon pulled
down the road in the evening to learn how climbers keep climbing at nite. Got their money's
worth that way and had something to tell back home.
Forgive my ignorance please, what is a fire fall? I'm enjoying this side tracked thread from the side lines.
Regards
Erik
Altitude and altitude and be a dude (or dudette)! Anything 500 yds up and less than 500 yds out is a heck of a climb!
The original man-made Firefall :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_Firefall
The present day "Firefall" is a natural seasonal occurance:
http://www.yosemitepark.com/horsetail-fall.aspx
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