John muir sierra club

High Trips

Former series of annual excursions of the Sierra Club

The High Trips were large annual wilderness excursions organized and led by the Sierra Club, beginning in The High Trips lasted until the early s, and were replaced by a larger number of smaller trips to wilderness areas worldwide.

Origin

Sierra Club secretary William Colby initiated the High Trips, which usually traveled to the High Sierra, and led them from to Colby wrote, "It was from John Muir, President of the Club, that I received the warmest encouragement.

  • See full list on vault.sierraclub.org
  • Scotland section of Geography of John Muir
  • John Muirs Scottish Ancestry: Muir Clan or Gordon Clan?by Harold Wood

    • He was highly enthusiastic, and told me that he had long been trying to get the Club to undertake just such outings."[1] Edward T. Parsons, a former member of The Mazamas, an Oregon mountaineering club, was also involved with the early logistics, as that club had conducted similar trips. Early outings lasted four full weeks, but eventually the trips were separated into two segments of two weeks each so that those with less time to spare could participate.

    Francis Farquhar wrote that the purpose of the High Trips was far more than to provide an enjoyable vacation to the participants, but also to "lead them to know and appreciate the beauty and inspiration of the mountains, and to educate them to become defenders of the wilderness."[2]

    The first High Trip in July, attracted 96 club members to Yosemite National Park.

    On the eve of the start of the trip, club co-founder and University of California, Berkeley geology professor Joseph LeConte died of a sudden heart attack in Yosemite Valley at age Other than this sad event, the trip was a success, and the Sierra Club then began a successful fundraising drive to build LeConte Memorial Lodge in Yosemite Valley in his honor.[3] The High Trip the next and subsequent years doubled in size.

    Logistics

    The high trips were complex affairs, with gear for approximately participants packed in by mules, with a staff of up to 50 and elaborate food prepared by professional cooks. It served to establish rituals and folklore that bound the members of the club together.

    John muir biography sierra club trips External links [ edit ]. He went into business for 10 years with his father-in-law managing the orchards on the family acre farm in Martinez, California. Sequoia National Park. John Muir: Family, Friends, and Adventures.

    Participants wore bandannas around their necks, used the distinctive metal Sierra Club cup, and sang the same campfire songs year after year. When the Sierra Club was lobbying for the establishment of Kings Canyon National Park, the High Trips visited that area many times, so that more effective lobbyists for the park could become familiar with its remote beauty.[4]

    Destinations and mountaineering

    Atthough most of the High Trips were in the Sierra Nevada, occasionally trips were scheduled to other mountain ranges of western North America, including Mount Rainier in , Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and the Canadian Rockies in

    The July trip to the Canadian Rockies was a joint venture with The Mazamas of Oregon, and The Mountaineers of the state of Washington.

    A train was chartered from Oakland to Jasper Park Lodge. During this trip, participants climbed many peaks, including Redoubt Mountain, Mount Robson, Mount Edith Cavell, Mount Geikie, Mount Bastion, Mount Barbican and Drawbridge Mountain.[5]Norman Clyde served as a mountaineering guide, and Ansel Adams was the official photographer (on later trips, he would also serve as assistant manager and director of evening entertainment).

    Adams produced photo portfolios documenting the High Trips of , , and (though he did not participate personally in the High Trip to Yellowstone). These portfolios he sold at cost to High Trip participants.[6]

    Mountaineering was a major element of the High Trips from the very beginning, although non-climbers, dubbed "meadoweers," were also welcome.

    Francis Farquhar wrote that "Greatest of all mountaineers who have participated in Sierra Club outings is Norman Clyde," who led many High Trip climbs from the s to [7]

    David Brower managed the High Trips from to , and wrote an article for National Geographic in that brought great publicity to the trips.[8]

    Legacy

    Gradually, the large annual High Trip was supplemented by smaller knapsacking and burro trips.

    See full list on vault.sierraclub.org Legacy [ edit ]. The high trips were complex affairs, with gear for approximately participants packed in by mules, with a staff of up to 50 and elaborate food prepared by professional cooks. Madison: Univ. Retrieved May 3,

    Scaled down High Trips continued into the early s.[9] Eventually, the club concluded that High Trips of over participants had too great an environmental impact on fragile wilderness areas, and the High Trips evolved into the current outings program, consisting of a much larger number of much smaller trips.

    The Sierra Club now conducts approximately 50 foreign trips each year, as well as several hundred trips throughout the United States through its National Outings program. Local chapters organize thousands of similar trips each year.

    References

    1. ^Farquhar, Francis P., History of the Sierra Nevada, University of California Press, Berkeley, , page , ISBN&#;
    2. ^Farquhar, Francis P., History of the Sierra Nevada, University of California Press, Berkeley, , page , ISBN&#;
    3. ^Cohen, Michael P., The History of the Sierra Club: - , Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, , page 20, ISBN&#;
    4. ^Cohen, Michael P., The History of the Sierra Club: - , Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, , page 62 - 63, ISBN&#;
    5. ^Pavlik, Robert C., Norman Clyde: Legendary Mountaineer of California's Sierra Nevada, , Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA, pages 32 - 37, ISBN&#;
    6. ^Alinder, Mary Street, Ansel Adams: A Biography, Henry Holt and Company, New York, , pages 99 - , ISBN&#;
    7. ^Farquhar, Francis P., History of the Sierra Nevada, University of California Press, Berkeley, , page , ISBN&#;
    8. ^Brower, David R.

      (June ). "Sierra High Trip".

      Chronology of Important Events in the Life of John Muir (short) Retrieved October 27, Retrieved October 11, Muir believed that to discover truth, he must turn to what he believed were the most accurate sources. National Parks Magazine.

      The National Geographic Magazine. CV (Six). Washington, DC: National Geographic Society: –

    9. ^Smith, John (). "Mt. Whitney Pack Trains' Sierra Club High Trips - ". Lone Pine, CA: Mt. Whitney Packers & Owens Valley History Site.

      A Geography of John Muir - Muir traveled extensively in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and elsewhere in the world in search of the beauties of Nature. Also see below... A 5-cent stamp issued on April 29, , was designed by Rudolph Wendelin , and showed Muir's face superimposed on a grove of redwood trees, and the inscription, "John Muir Conservationist". Muir often told her, "This business of writing books is a long, tiresome, endless job". His books, letters and essays describing his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada , have been read by millions. Muir later wrote, "I never for a moment thought of giving up God's big show for a mere profship!

      Retrieved 5 May

    Further reading

    • Adams, Ansel (). Ansel Adams In The Canadian Rockies. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN&#;

    External links