“We’ll bivy here, and go for the summit in the morning.”
It’s the classic play – calling your parents to see if they have the money to fund your next grand adventure. Fortunately, instead of spending $150K to pursue the canonical Seven Summits – the highest point on each of the seven continents – one of my favorite outdoor people, Brendan Leonard, decides to take on the Seven Summits of his neighborhood. It’s unclear if BL’s mom helps to fund the expedition in the end, but she is never the less graciously invited to join him for the first ascent.
Watch the video. Watching someone having that much fun is absolutely infectious. It even inspired Alastair Humphreys to create his own UK edition.
And it got me thinking. What would our local seven summits be?
The Seven Summits of Yosemite Valley might be:
- Sentinel Dome
- Half Dome
- Cloud’s Rest
- Watkins
- North Dome
- Eagle Peak
- El Capitan
The National Geographic Maps of Yosemite divide the park into 4 areas with a front and a back. 8 Summits for the high point in each section? (What’s magical about seven anyway?)
Or you could try to divide Yosemite into 7 regions:
- Hetch Hetchy
- Tuolumne – North of the Road
- Tuolumne – South of the Road
- North Rim of Yosemite Valley
- South Rim of Yosemite Valley
- South of Glacier Point Road – like the Clark Range?
- Wawona area
And you could pick the highest point… or just the most outstanding and appealing summit.
Options for adventure abound. Do you have any ideas for Yosemite Summits?