Field Research from the Valley (originally posted on rec.climbing)
Though the weather looked bad, this past Friday (1/9/98) I decided to blow off work and visit Yosemite, and once I got there, I decided to finally experience the "wilderness" from the comfort of a hotel room. Though I have spent over 2000 nights in Yosemite (fully seven years of my life!) spread out over a 20 year climbing career, never once had I contributed to the concession's lodging profits, but seeing how they're dictating the future of Yosemite visitation, I though maybe I'd check it out. So I shelled out the 100 bucks for Manzanita Room 3400, and enclosed myself. The drone of the bathroom fan and the muffled hard noises from other hotel inhabitants seemed eerie in contrast to the occasional clank of gear and cook pots and the soft murmured conversations I was used to hearing while with fellow campers in the campground, only several hundred yards away. The view from my front door was of the post office and the Olympic sized lodge swimming pool, whose perceived value is so great that Delaware North was given permission to develop the Swan Slab grove of Ponderosa Pines (most of which will get cut down) in order to expand their hotels rather than do away with such an essential "recreational" feature of the resort property they want to create.
On Saturday morning the weather was cloudy, as it was the night before when I went to bed. I ventured out to the Lodge cafe, where I ran into Stephanie Davis and Warren Hollinger, who had just that morning made it down from the top of El Cap. They had just finished the South Seas to PO route on the big stone, and were warming up in the cafe loading up on coffee and sharing exploits with Kennan Harvey and Mike Pennings, who had also come down from climbing El Cap a few days earlier. Looking a bit weary but glowing from the experience, they told me of their efforts topping out late the day before and descending the East Ledges through the night in bad conditions. As I asked them, "Oh was it storming last night?" I realized the full extent of the isolation a hotel room creates. Though I had myself on many occasions battled fierce weather, slippery rock, and desperate conditions on the final pitches of a big stone route, I found it hard to relate just at that moment on their tales of the fiercity and savageness of the conditions, since for me, it was a warm and safe night. I realized as well why a climber's adventures will never fully be understood by anyone who has never suffered to such an extent as being at the hands of mother nature while hanging from a steep rock wall. In a way, it makes me sad, but then again, it makes me realize that I wouldn't trade my own adventuresome experiences with anything in the world.
The current plan for the Valley is to increase the infrastructure of the hotel accommodations of the concession, and to reduce the number of campsites. Though Yosemite Valley is not exactly wilderness, it does offer many incredible spots to commune with nature and experience the pulse of the land. As the resort company, Delaware North, continues to push its development agenda for its commercial venues in Yosemite, humanity's ability to experience the outdoors will further incrementally decrease.
There is power in nature, as a society we are losing our connection. We need to think of ways to protect it, not develop it. The 8 virgin acres in the Lodge area planned for development, including the Swan Slab grove north of Northside drive, though minuscule compared to the real wilderness currently being raped elsewhere in the country, will be a keystone representation of the true power of developmental agendas, as one of the nicest untouched areas on the Valley floor, a favorite of all winter inhabitants of Yosemite, will be lost to hotels. We should save it not just for ourselves, or our country, or the trees, but for every living thing on this planet.
John Middendorf, Reporter in the field