. . . from the archives #48: Tent in Snow, Kearsarge Pass—Sierra Nevada, 1974

That year I had been taking the Sierra Club’s mountaineering course and one of their talking points was that backpacking in the snow was great fun as long as you were adequately prepared.

So in order to practice our skills we took a group trip up to the Eastern Sierra, camped overnight at Onion Valley and then headed up towards Kearsarge Pass. I remember one incident in which one of my boots sunk a little bit more than I had expected into the snow and, as if in slow motion, I inexorably twisted and fell—backwards, my backpack squished in the snow as I struggled, turtle-like, to get back up.

At one point the snow started coming down pretty heavily. We set up camp well short of the pass, amidst foxtail pines. I shared a tent with Pat Brown—her husband, Rick, was unable to make it that weekend. I assume that that’s her in the photo.

Photo: Tent in Snow, Kearsarge Pass—Sierra Nevada, 1974