The Joy of Yosemite: Selected Writings of Enid Michael
From TradgirlWiki
Contents |
[edit] Enid Michael: Pioneer Yosemite Climber and Ranger Naturalist
(NOTE: The following review was written by Dan Rampe. Extracts from “The Joy of Yosemite: Selected Writings of Enid Michael, Pioneer Ranger Naturalist,” are used with the permission of the editor, Fernando Penalosa.)
"The Joy of Yosemite: Selected Writings of Enid Michael, Pioneer Ranger Naturalist” profiles an amazing Yosemite and Sierra Nevada woman climber of the 1920s and 1930s. Don’t be misled by the title; it’s guaranteed to fuel your climbing ambitions.
Edited with an introduction and notes by Fernando Penalosa, the book features an accompanying DVD containing the full text version of all her known works, 537 in all, as well as selections from the Michaels’ Yosemite movies. Penalosa located 195 articles by her in "Yosemite Nature Notes," a natural history publication of Yosemite Park published between 1922 – 1961 by the Yosemite Natural History Association, now the Yosemite Association. She also wrote 336 articles from January 1924 to May 1930 for the Stockton Record.
It’s not a climbing book but it does have a chapter dedicated to climbing. Yet another chapter is dedicated to hikes and still others discuss birds, mammals, and plants. The book is available now for $15 through the Yosemite Association.Tel: 209-379-2648 or 209-379-2646.
[edit] A mixed background
Enid was a ranger naturalist, botanist, ornithologist, feminist, environmentalist and, yes, a climber. By any standard of measurement, yesterday or today, Enid Michael would stand out as a unique individual. Enid, and her husband Charles, the Assistant Postmaster of Yosemite National Park, were one of the leading Yosemite and Sierra Nevada climbing couples of their generation along with Francis and Marjorie Bridge Farquhar and Joseph and Helen LeConte.
The style of climbing described within "The Joy of Yosemite: Selected Writings of Enid Michael, Pioneer Ranger Naturalist” was surely a more “pure” form of climbing, unencumbered by the equipment that today protects our lives, allows us to ascend heretofore inaccessible lines, and artificially buttresses our mental leading skills. Enid describes mostly fourth and lower fifth class climbs. All the climbs described are unroped. No helmet, harness, belay device, nuts, camming devices or pitons. However, she does make reference to the use of rubber-soled shoes. And no topos. Enid and her husband ascended routes that had never seen the passage of a human being.
John Moynier and Claude Fiddler, in the 1993 “Sierra Classics: 100 Best Climbs in the High Sierra” states that: “Charles Michael was another solo climber who was confident on difficult climbs. It was said that he climbed everything that did not need pitons. A complete list of his accomplishments may never be known, as he usually climbed solo and was closed-mouthed about his travels. Between 1912 and 1920, Michael made the first ascents of Devils Crag No. 1, Michael Minaret and Michael Pinnacle in the Kaweahs. Many of his solo routes on these peaks are today rated moderate fifth class.”
Richard Leonard, in a 1937 mimeographed “Mountain Records of the Sierra Nevada” lists additional ascents for Charles Michael: the Leaning Tower and the Three Brothers, and a first ascent of Cathedral gully by Charles and Enid Michael along with Virginia Best, wife of Ansel Adams. This last climb is described by Enid in the book.
For climbers, and all persons with an interest and appreciation for all things Yosemite, it’s a book that should sit on the shelf alongside authors Roper, Jones, Selters, Voge, Long, Duane, Johnston, Sargent, Rowell, Clyde, Reid, Meyers, Sharsmith, McNamara, Porcella and Burns, Secor, Moynier and Fiddler, and others.
(For a more comprehensive, historical view of climbing in Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada, interested persons should turn to the following sources: Steve Roper’s “Camp 4: Recollections of a Yosemite Rockclimber, Climber’s Guide to Yosemite Valley and The Climber’s Guide to the High Sierra”; Walter A. Starr Jr’s “Starr’s Guide to John Muir Trail and the High Sierra Region;” the introduction in John Moynier and Claude Fiddler’s “Climbing California’s High Sierra;” R. J. Secor’s “The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes and Trails;” or the “Mountaineering Notes” section of old Sierra Club Bulletins.)
[edit] Evolving Stewardship Philosophies
A careful reading of the book also provides an insight into the evolving philosophies of what is deemed appropriate stewardship and management of Yosemite. What one generation deems correct, another censures. For example, if you were a climber or visitor to Yosemite during the time Enid Michael wrote these stories, on your off day you could entertain yourself with any of the following:
- Visit the Bear Pits at night to watch the concessionaire’s feed garbage to the bears. While this practice has been abolished, we no longer need the Bear Pits. We’ve got the campgrounds.
- Hand feed animals. The practice wasn’t discouraged. Even Enid confesses to the practice. "Who can forget the wild animal that has taken bread from this hand? In all the world there is not other joy like this," she says. (The DVD features several animal feeding sessions including one where she is chased by a bear for food.)
- Go to a small "zoo" where mountain lions, bears and a wild cat were caged. It was later abolished in 1932.
- Visit the “Elk Paddock” where Tule elk were on display. This was later removed to a refuge in the Owens Valley in 1933.
[edit] Excerpts
But it is Enid’s climbing exploits that will hold your attention. A brief sampling of some excerpts gives you a sense for some of the climbs:
[edit] Rescue of Charles Michael from Cliff
This is perhaps the most compelling story in the collection of stories as it details a rescue of Charles Michael who fell and broke his leg on a climb in Yosemite on December 27, 1927. “’A foothold gave way, a handhold broke and Charles was thrown into an awkward leap. He landed in a steep sloping gully, clinging to a shrubby oak bush. He was very quiet. I was frightened. I called to him, ‘Are you all right?’ His answer was a soft-spoken ‘No.’ When we reached his side he told us that his leg was broken just above the ankle. Here was an appalling situation. We were perched on a cliff twelve hundred feet above the floor of the valley; day was drawing to a close, and there crouched the leader of the party with a broken leg.’”
What to do? She descended to the valley floor, helped organize a rescue party that included Ansel Adams and returned with others to spend the night with him. The rest of the story describes a descent the next day in a snowstorm. Must reading for YOSAR.
[edit] Half Dome’s Diving Board
Here Enid describes a climb from Grizzly Peak following the ridge to the Diving Board, and then down to Mirror Lake. She took a young man, named Mario Pechinino or "Peck", who was employed in the Post Office. "...I thought to myself, I’ll give this boy something to boast about..." She later goes on to say that "...Mario asked if the worst was over. It was my duty to tell him that the worst had not yet begun. But it was not a painful duty as Mario has been wishing for the thrills of a wild climb and I took keen delight in seeing these wishes fulfilled." It may be one of the first recorded instances of sandbagging your partner in the Valley.
[edit] Bluffs of Half Dome
This is a climb from Mirror Lake up to the top of Half Dome. "The summit crags were not so bad as they looked. To the rough granite our rubber-soled shoes held well and cracks and knobs came at the precise points to step us over the worst places." Later she discusses her love of flowers, something backcountry climbers might also appreciate: "This had been a wonderful day. Beside the job of climbing we had the flowers…The most appealing thought that the flowers left with us was that here on these inaccessible cliffs wild gardens shall remain forever undisturbed, although millions come to visit Yosemite Valley."
[edit] Sentinel Rock
Here she describes chimney climbing. "Once in the chimney there is no going wrong. One simply climbs straight away."
[edit] Cathedral Rocks
This was a climb up Cathedral Rocks on December 15. Starting out the temperature was 26 degrees Fahrenheit. She comments upon colorful lichens, plants, trees and birds. "There wasn’t a breeze or a sound except the dull roar of the cascades in the bottom of Bridalveil Canyon. Two Cooper’s hawks swung out over the canyon in a game of tag. Hawks! – What in the world were they doing up here where there was no sign of life, when they might drop over the rim to the Bear Pits and plenty of food."
[edit] The Acorn Crack
"One of the most interesting and thrilling short climbs about the walls of Yosemite Valley is the climb up the chimney between the Acorn and the main mass of Cathedral Rocks. The Acorn is smaller and outstanding rock of the Cathedral group and it stands just a little over sixteen hundred feet above the floor of the valley. Looking down the valley, this rock resembles an acorn." (According to Penalosa’s footnotes, the name "Acorn" refers to resemblance to the chakka, the Native American acorn storage structures, rather than to the acorns, and originally referred to both spires. Enid says this about the climbing: "To one lacking in confidence or not thoroughly trained in the art of climbing, the ascent of the chimney would be extremely hazardous and the descent of course would be even more dangerous."
Enid also talks of taking Virginia Best, the future wife of Ansel Adams, on a climb. “Occasionally we have taken someone with us and on three different occasions this someone added greatly to the thrills. The first adventure in this respect happened several years ago. Miss Virginia Best was with us. She is the daughter of H.C. Best, the artist, and has spent most of her summers here in the valley. Perhaps this may account for her climbing ability. Anyway she is a wonderful climber, quite fearless and willing to tackle any sort of climb.”
Later, on a climb with Virginia, they come across an “…old rope, abandoned by some former climber, hung from a projection down the steepest part of the wall…Just as Virginia swung free and started to slide, the rope broke and down she came. Mr. Michael lost his hat; he staggered from the force of the impact but caught Virginia in his arms and somehow managed to maintain his balance on the ledge. We were all safe. Mr. Michael lost some skin from his knuckles. It was an experience to remember and we learned a lesson – no more trusting old ropes.” And you thought you were the only person to rap another person’s ropes on El Cap or the East Ledges.
[edit] Leaning Tower
“While we were resting on the summit we were entertained by two kinds of birds and strangely enough these two species represent the smallest and largest birds to be found in the Yosemite region. One was the little calliope hummingbird that weights just about one-tenth of an ounce. The other was the golden eagle. The hummer was feeding from the red blossoms of the California fuchsia that grew in the cracks. The eagles, three of them, were sailing in the high skies. Other avian entertainers were the white-throated swifts. The swifts were raking insects from the air and they swept through the airlanes with the whizzing speed of a bullet. A pair of peregrine falcons (the first by the way that I have ever seen in the valley) that had a nest-site in an inaccessible cranny high up on the wall, protested our presence in shrill, yelping voices.” Have you ever been on a wall and mistaken the sound of the speeding passage of a swift or swallow for rockfall?
[edit] Liberty Cap
According to Penalosa “one common feature of her writings is anthropomorphism, the attribution of human qualities to nonhumans.” Here’s an example in her piece on climbing Liberty Cap. “Age and deformity never break the spirit of the Jeffrey pine; their gray-green clusters of needles sparkle in the sunshine and wild and triumphant are the songs they sing the wind. The junipers form massive trunks whose circumference may equal their own height and with foliage massed into hedge-like forms they are equipped to do battle with the wildest storms. Bold sprits are these trees, not only unabashed by the most tragic disaster but expressing courage and exalted joy as long as one shred of life is left them. And even when dead their upright barkless bodies defy the storms for many a year.”
[edit] Mount Broderick
On the approach to Mount Broderick Enid describes an encounter with a bear. Sound familiar? Probably the long lost relative of those bears that rip through unattended haul bags at the base of El Cap. The DVD also contains black and white footage of two bears wrestling with each other in a river. “…we had not taken a dozen steps when we came face to face with a great golden-brown bear. He was coming down the trail to meet us but when he became aware of our presence he paused, looked with interest for a moment and then hung his head as though ashamed of having been caught in some mischief. As we stepped forward the bear turned, left the trail and hurried off through the bushes. Now we had a notion that we understood his thoughts and his actions. He was not ashamed of what he had done, but what he was gong to do. He was afraid. He was going to run away and this thought made him hang his head in shame. What should a great beast like this golden-brown giant run from two unarmed humans? He gave us the path and so we wandered on, although with a wish that the bear had possessed but a slightly bolder spirit.”
A separate section on hikes includes descriptions on “Up the Ledge Trail in January and Down By Chute;” “Ledge Trail in September;” “Eleven Mile Trail in Spring;” “High Country” and “Merced Lake.”
[edit] Biography
Who was Enid Michael? She was born Enid Reeve on May 27, 1883 in Gilroy, California. She met her future husband Charles, Assistant Postmaster of Yosemite National Park, on a Sierra Club outing. They married in 1918 and moved to Yosemite in 1919. (In 1919 the year she came to Yosemite visitors numbered 58,632; in 1942, her last year of service, 332,550. By 1994, the number exceeded 4 million. However, in more recent years, annual visitors have averaged around 3.4 million.)
She never held a permanent position with the National Park Service. She was appointed on a seasonal, year-by-year basis. Her employment helped pave the way for other women in the National Park Service. But she was not the first woman to serve as ranger-naturalist in the Park Service. That distinction goes to Isabel Basset, who served in Yellowstone the summer of 1920. She was also not the first woman ranger in Yosemite. That honor goes to Clare Hodges, who worked as a seasonal park ranger in the summer of 1918.
During most of their time in the Valley the Michaels lived in tents or wooden cabins with wooden or cement floors. For a while, they lived in a tent by Roe Island, a large sandbar up river from Sentinel Bridge, where they lived from 1919 to 1927. When the new Post Office opened in 1926, the Michaels occupied one of the apartments upstairs set aside for Post Office employees.
Charles retired from the Post Office in 1934 because of heart problems. He later died in 1941 at their home in Pasadena, where they resided when they were not in Yosemite.
Enid’s last day of service was September 30, 1942. She never returned to her job because in 1943 all seasonal ranger-naturalist positions were abolished for the duration of the war.
She remained in Pasadena where she married Herbert H. Benson in the early 1950s and continued to spend park of each summer in Yosemite. She was a long-time member of the Sierra Club (as were both her husbands), and served as Custodian of the club’s Le Conte Memorial Lodge in 1945 – 1946 and 1949 – 1954.
The last three years of her life, Enid suffered from Alzheimer’s, cared for by her husband Herbert Benson. She died in Pasadena on February 11, 1966 at the age of 82.
I recommend that you find a comfortable chair, turn the pages and let yourself be taken back to climbing in Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada in the 1920s and 1930s. It’s guaranteed to give you an even greater appreciation for the climbing generations that preceded you.
(NOTE: The preceding was extracted from ““The Joy of Yosemite: Selected Writings of Enid Michael, Pioneer Ranger Naturalist,” with the permission of the editor, Fernando Penalosa.)
