The only philosophical novel about climbing I ever read was Kerouac’s Dharma Bums. The scramble up the Matterhorn in the Sierras is fabulous. Ray, the narrator, is enthusiastic, set on going to the top, but in fact becomes more and more terrified. “This is too high!” he yells to his friend Japhy, he can’t go on. He finds aContinue reading “You Can’t Fall Off a Mountain”
Tag Archives: Yosemite
Climbing, with minor fateful decisions
A fateful decision could be minor in either of two ways. It could be the sort of decision that elsewhere and elsewhen has led to tragedy, but in this particular case the actor gets off scot=free, Or it could be minor in that the decision was in itself of no great consequence, though the outcomeContinue reading “Climbing, with minor fateful decisions”
In the rock I trust
Last year I gave away my trad climbing gear, some of it new, some of it by then almost 25 years old. Not the end of the world: I would still be able to go sport climbing, where the bolts are all already installed, and of course continue in the climbing gym. And yet …Continue reading “In the rock I trust”
Yosemite and Cuisine
In the spring of ’92, on a walk by the Santa Cruz shore, Ric Otte asked me if I would like to come rock climbing with him and his friends, in Yosemite. There was another of those things you should do at least once in your life … I thought. Actually it was another of thoseContinue reading “Yosemite and Cuisine”
Bas van Fraassen's Commonplace Book 