The Big Dipper rises over El Capitan, Yosemite
Here is one of the most amazing and beautiful scenes that I’ve ever seen. (A seen scene. Haha.)
Driving by late at night, I looked out the car window and saw what I thought was a constellation in the sky, but it was actually the lights of mountain climbers resting on the side of the mountain. It takes about 4 days to summit the one-kilometer peak, so climbers spend the night in hammocks that they attach to the face. Making the scene even more amazing is the actual constellation of the bigger dipper, upside down above El Capitan.
In this picture, there are the lights of 10 climbers. (Can you zoom in and count them all). The two orange dots were climbers still on the move. They seemed very close to the summit. I saw about 20 lights total and estimated that there were triple that many climbers. It was amazing, and I wished I were one of them.
If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend the documentary “Free Solo,” where climber Alex Honnold becomes the first to summit El Capitan without ropes. And he did it not in 4 days, but 4 hours! Truly one of the most remarkable athletic feats of any kind, ever.
In other news, I’ve been busy having lots of adventures, including visiting an incredibly remote spot in Panama and nearly breaking my legs, two national parks, Yosemite (pictured here) and Pinnacles, a trip to my homeland of Wisconsin… I can’t even remember all the adventures I’ve had. Too many to even be able to write about. It reminds me of my story, The Untold Adventures, which highlights the irony of living your life versus sitting in front of a computer writing about your life. I think this is relevant to us all in this day and age of social media.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know more is coming as soon as I decide which project to focus on.
