Anyone who has driven south from Bishop on California’s scenic Route 395 in the spring has seen it, a thin white line dropping from the right corner of Mt. Williamson’s north face. To skiers of the steep, that thread beckons like a hypodermic needle loaded with raw adrenaline.
The Skintrack to Environmental Activism: The David Brower Story
On Leap Day 1936, as Spain descended into civil war and Hitler prepared to march troops into the Rhineland, a group of Californians set off from Yosemite Valley for the High Sierra Nevada. They carried heavy wooden skis and 50-pound packs, aiming to make the first winter ascent and descent of 13,114-foot Mt. Lyell, Yosemite National Park’s highest peak.
