Mount Tyndall
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Mount Tyndall |
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Each year my trips into the wilderness became longer and more frequent. We returned several times to the Kern plateau region of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Once, on our way out at the end of the trip, we stopped to talk with a back country ranger. He shared with us the details of one of his favorite side-trips, and following his directions we climbed Mount Tyndall, my third high peak.
As we ascended the side of this mountain, all the lower neighboring peaks dropped away. Soon it appeared that we were on the top of the world. No terrain within our vision was higher than us. The sky above was a dark blue, as we had also out-climbed a significant portion of the earth's atmosphere.
The top of Mount Tyndall consists of a narrow, knife-edge ridge with a single car-sized boulder forming the actual summit. We were climbing from the southwest, the least steep side of the mountain. Opposite our climb, the northeast face dropped away vertically. Approaching the summit, I had the distinct and slightly uncomfortable feeling that the ridge was too thin, and too little rock separated us from the cliff on the other side. During the last few feet, I could look through small gaps between the rocks and see blue sky on the other side of the mountain. Finally, we climbed up onto the summit, and realized it was actually overhanging the east face by a few feet. We ended the climb with nothing below us but one rock, and then 1500 feet of thin air.
Like a drug addiction, I knew I had to have more. Immediately to our east, Mount Williamson towered more than 350 feet above us. I wanted to climb this peak as well, but its difficulty and remoteness made it inaccessible to me.
| I shouted for Tim, but knew that even if he were to reach me, he could do nothing to stop my fall. I thought about all the successful climbs I had accomplished up to this point, counted myself lucky to have not had an unfortunate accident before now, and prepared for the inevitable. |
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