SOUTHERN SIERRAS: Breathing Some Thin Air

When you ask people what compels them to hike long distances, the answers can generally be put into one of three categories: for a genuine love of the wilderness and the desire to commune with nature, to escape the tedium and overstimulation of crowded cities and 9-5 jobs, or simply to challenge oneself, physically and psychically. These next 500 miles or so should deliver on all fronts.

To be sure, this is the most difficult and dangerous section of the trail. For 200 miles, the trail never crosses a road. It's the longest uninterrupted stretch of wilderness in the US. If you're going to have a change of heart about walking, this is not the section to have it on. Hiking back out is nearly as demanding as simply pressing on. Trail towns are few and far between. And just when you finally reach the top of that pass you've had your eye on for step after thousands of steps, you see just how many more 10,000 foot plus passes lie ahead of you.

Mark Twain once said of these peaks that here you breathe the same air the angels breathe. Well, apparently they're accustomed to less oxygen. Up here the air is thin. Altitude sickness can become a real threat, and hiking with vertigo is not unheard of.

Mount Whitney doesn't technically lie on the Pacific Crest Trail. But, as if they don't have enough miles to put behind them, most hikers cannot resist the temptation to summit this, the highest peak in the 48 contiguous states. Rebecca Solnit writes about the metaphorical and symbolic significance of mountains:
"There is no more clear geographical equivalent to the idea of arrival and triumph than the topmost peak beyond which there is no farther to go..."

This spirit of conquest witnessed in some hikers stands in sharp relief to the more idyllic serenity of peaceful co-existence with animals and trees conjured by stories of and quotes from John Muir, who wrote: "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings." Muir, whose very name is synonymous with the Sierra Nevada, referred to them as the "range of light."

This is truly a place of extremes. The beauty of the landscape is unsurpassed and capturing it in its high definition glory will be a challenge for the most physically fit videographer. Passing through the "Gateway to the High Sierras" doesn't just mean a change of attire and accoutrements; it will require a shift in attitude that many could not even have conceived lay within.