| MAY 1994 | **Our 53rd Season** | 231 |
DESERT VISIONS by PATTY KLINE
| I really enjoyed having the
opportunity to be Chair of the Desert Peaks Section this past year. The desert
is a place you can climb in all year around as reflected in our List of 97
peaks. A quote from Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire captures our craving
for adventure. Here it is. "Finally a word of caution: Do not jump into your
automobile next June and rush out to the canyon country hoping to see some of
that which I have attempted to evoke in these pages. In the first place you
can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the goddamned
contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone
and through the thorn bush and cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark your
trail you'll see something, maybe. Probably not. In the second place most of
what I write about in this book is already gone or going under fast. This is
not a travel guide but an elegy. A memorial. You're holding a tombstone in your
hands. A bloody rock. Don't drop it on your foot-throw it at something big and
glassy. What do you have to lose?" As you all probably know by now, our climbing insurance is back. Trips with ropes and ice axe will be allowed, so M and E leaders here is your chance to add some of our technical trips. Check with Greg Roach. our Outings Chair for 1994-5 on the particulars. Dave Jurasevich is putting out the 3rd Edition of the Desert Peaks Guide, probably in December. Send to him any revisions or additions you would like to suggest. Also send him your photographs for his new guide to be |
published in book form. He will
obtain your permission to publish photographs you have taken. Our monthly meeting place is now the Los Angeles Room, behind the cafeteria at the Department of Water and Power. This is a new location. It is much nicer than the small white rooms to the right of the auditorium where we have been meeting the past couple of years. Thank you so much to my Management Committee for serving with me. Mirna Roach, Vice and Outings Chair, scheduled a bumper crop of great outings for the year. Igor Mamedalin was the Secretary who kept track of the members and peak accomplishments and took the minutes very nicely and with that great. sense of humor. Ron Grau, our Treasurer, did wonderfully, leaving us with more money than we started with. Suzanne Mamedalin got us some outstanding programs this year and worked very hard on the really nice banquet. Bill T. Russell did Archives: Dan Richter-Council; Maris Valkass- Conservation; Greg Roach-Mountain Records; Ron Jones-retiring Sage Editor who did a world class job; John McCully-new Sage Editor; and Dave Jurasevich Peak Guide Editor. Congratulations to Dan Richter, our new Chair for 1994-5! In closing I would like to quote Colin Fletcher from The Complete Walker III. "The Law of Inverse Appreciation states 'The less there is between you and the environment, the more you appreciate that environment.'" Have a great summer. |