High Odyssey

by Gene Rose, Orland Bartholomew (Illustrator)

The first solo winter trek of the high Sierra crest, in 1928-29, from Cottonwood Lakes to Tuolomne Meadows, by mountaineer and "stream guager" Orland Bartholomew, is vividly described in this account of a dangerous solitary journey. Includes great photos by the subject,who traveled on skis for most of the distance--and who climbed Mt Whitney on the way, for the first recorded winter ascent of the highest peak. Author Gene Rose interviewed surviving "stream gaugers" and took his main material from the diary of Orland "Bart" Bartholomew.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Robert Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this one in a thrift store for a couple of bucks, I like the man steeped-in-nature tone of these kinds of books and so I picked it up. It is definitely an easy read. It delivers on the scenery and was exactly what I would expect having read these types of books before; lots of nature and weather, a few near misses, and some animals. The photographs from the mountaineer’s camera were great and definitely helped me to get what the terrain was actually like that Orland was traversing. I also really enjoy it when the adventurer experiences a rush of mysticism or a spiritual connection with their surroundings.

“[T]he sun had slipped low in the winter sky, raking the walls of the mountain amphitheater with the warm colors of alpenglow. So lighted, the ridges and buttresses sprang from the crest, complementing and contrasting with the cold shadows which formed an abstract pattern of mountain magic.” – pg.58

Perhaps there would have been more of these types of passages if the book had actually been authored by the mountaineer himself. However, I still liked it. It's just that in other similar books, those written by the adventurer, these types of passages show up slightly more frequently.

I also enjoy the environmental awareness of the adventurer that usually comes up for a sentence or two in similar works. Here, the near extinction of the Sierra wolf is touched on. “On his return he discovered several large wolf tracks below his cabin. Bart carefully inspected the new prints, and concluded that the hut had been visited by more than one wolf. He had heard their lonely wail weeks earlier and had seen their tracks atop Glen Pass; so he was assured that the Sierra wolf was not extinct.” – pg.112

I enjoyed this book, it was easy, what I expected, and had a few points that really appealed to me. I would recommend this to anyone who also likes to read these older man-goes-out-into-nature type books.