| MAY 1993 | ** Our 52nd Season ** | 225 |
Some people love the snow, but I hate the stuff. It's always cold, and often sticky and wet to boot. One of the many lovely things about the desert is that one can almost always avoid trudging through snow. Now I'm going to make an outrageous suggestion. To an outdoor lover who hates snow Los Angeles may be the best place in this country, and perhaps the world to live and work. For year round hiking in decent weather I can't think of another area that has the width and depth of wilderness opportunities that our smoggy, strife ridden and overcrowded city has. I'll grant that a lot of our local wilderness is not the very best in the
country (although Whitney and Death Valley
lead in their specialized categories), but we've got a ton of stuff that's
quite good that can be reached over a weekend. I can't think of a place where
one can live and work and can go out every weekend year round and not have to
repeat an area or go into the snow. I know this sounds terribly chauvinistic,
but I'd love to be being proven wrong. If someone can tell me of a place which
has year round snow free mountaineering as rich and varied as one can get in LA
let me know. This leads me into a reflection on how the three peak bagging
sections meet different people's needs. HPS people like to sleep in their own
beds at night, and appreciate a spouse that doesn't hike but who has a hot meal
ready for when they get
home. DPS people eat potluck and sleep with their spouses
(mostly) in their trucks on public land. SPS'ers love to sleep on the sides of
mountains in tiny tents and eat terrible food that's been burned over a fire
and which they then claim is delicious. As expected such people are lucky if
they have a spouse at all. An HPS person looks on the drive to Owens peak as a
major expedition. The SPS'er will stoically drive 4 hours to get to his peaks,
and spends perhaps twice as much time walking as driving. For a DPS person the
drive's the thing. A DPS'er gets excited about a huge drive to bag two tiny
peaks, easily spending more time driving than hiking.But even the hardest of the hard men in the SPS can't compare to Graham Macintosh, this year's banquet speaker, who spent two years walking around Baja eating cactus, rattlesnake and bugs. Graham gave a terrific talk, about the 200th time he has given this particular talk, and said his book sold at a much higher rate than usual afterward. Perhaps we should consider using a professional speaker again next year. Many thanks to all the people who served on the management committee this year. it's been a good year with lots and hikes and a good turn out for most of them. Best of luck to Patty Kline and the folks serving on next years committee. -
John McCully