Muah Mountain (11,019')
12 mi, 3400 ft. gain
Well, the storms whipped up a fire last night, so I decided to head further south in the range and climb a technically easy peak. Muah mountain, a funny name indeed... is located just below the Mt. Whitney region, offering spectacular views of the High Sierra from a summit that lies just around tree-level. The hike itself was beautiful, crossing broad mountain meadows with wild deer grazing and leaping across the high grasses. The winds, however, would not let up all day and I was at the mercy of the directionless gusts all day as I made the ascent. The top of the peak offered some fun and easy rock scrambling, but I didn't stick around too long for fear of being blown off by the wrath of Poseidon! The summit register on top of Muah Mountain is a real gem, dating back to the 1960's. It was great perusing the names of the old Sierra Club parties and adding my own to this wonderful legacy of climbing history.
I returned to Southern California after climbing Muah because the low pressure front moving into the Sierras would bring heavy storms throughout the whole range for the rest of the weekend. Moreover, I had a retreat planned for my campus group E3 - Ecology, Economy, Equity - E3. We had a very productive weekend, planning the fall quarter and the year. I spent Sunday at the beach with a few friends and got to enjoy the beautiful California sunshine and the absolutely unique culture of Venice Beach.
Nevertheless, as most people who know me understand, I can't stay too long at sea level, so I'll be heading out again to the Sierra Nevada today to climb a few more peaks before sessions begin at UCLA again next week. I'll be back on Monday, the 25th - watch out for updates!
1 comment:
your muah photos are gorgeous. tree photo makes me think of galen's breathing mountain photo; i like how you centered the tree and placed it between the two breaths of cloud (purposefully, yes?). the sunflowers and wood close-up actually remind me a lot of my own photography; i like them a lot too. ;) the mountain photo i love; extremely formal composition, neatly splitting the frame into thirds, but highly effective. gorgeous everything. :) e3 festivities look like it was great fun (pity i missed it!. the summit register is awesome looking; i would have tried to get more above it though and center it in the frame for symmetry, getting rid of the background and trying to get in all of the lovely detail of just the register itself... but all in all, these photos make me smile. :D yaaay photos!!!
love, joyce
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