No Bivouac Tonight

Banner Peak

The Monterey Poetry Review’s Fall edition is out. I thank editor Jennifer Legier Fellguth for including a poem of mine, No Bivouac Tonight. It’s a climbing poem, so please have patience with me! Also, it’s good to connect with a local poetry group! http://montereypoetryreview.weebly.com/fall2022-poems/robert-walton

Moroni visits the Palisades

Middle Palisade, Sierra Nevada

A climbing mishap on the North Palisade glacier thirty years ago contributed to this story. It turns out the crawling headfirst into a crevasse, even in pursuit of expensive sunglasses, is a bad idea.  The actual adventure ended in laughs all around, but possible consequences have haunted me ever since. I’ve elaborated on them in Moroni.

http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue872/moroni.html

Penstemon Honey

One of the joys of alpine climbing is to come upon penstemon blossoms in places where such delicate beauty is improbable – a thousand feet above a scree field in a vertical crack filled with ice for half the year. Life’s persistence is an affirmation inspiring both humility and joy. I thank editor Laura Stone for including my poem in The Tiny Seed Literary Journal. https://tinyseedjournal.com/2020/07/14/penstemon-honey/

Tryst – a ghostly mountain tale

“Tryst” began as sketches for  a fairly tedious novel. After residing among ancient computer files for fifteen years or so, I got it out, trimmed away most of it and refashioned what was left into a ghostly climbing tale. It won a prize and publication. Please let me know what you think!

Here’s the link: http://www.theghoststory.com/tryst

Mountain Rules

Son Jeremy and I atop Pywiack in May of 1988 on an ideal day!

In May of 1987 Ed Foley, Linc Hatch and I went to the Sierras in May for some early season rock climbing. We ended up having more of an adventure than we’d planned – as sometimes happens in the mountains – when a violent snowstorm hit us mid-climb. I wrote about our “epic” in my journal and later polished it up a bit for potential publication. It looks like that will happen pretty soon! The reminiscence won a prize in the Ageless Authors competition. I absolutely make no claim to being ageless, but I’m glad they liked the story. I’ll share it with you when it’s available. Meanwhile, here’s a link to the article: https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/487742565/california-senior-writers-awarded-top-ageless-authors-prizes

A view of Tenaya Lake from Pywiack’s summit on a sunny May day in 1988

Pinnacles Forever!

Mike Russell, Bill Hunt and Bob Walton in the West Side parking lot, 1977

Friend, neighbor and civic leader Karen Jernigan invited me to speak at a meeting of Pinnacles Gateway Partners on March 14th. This group is devoted to sustaining, supporting and promoting Pinnacles National Park. My very pleasant task was to share some climbing stories and photos with members of the group, many of whom have no experience with rock climbing. Longtime leader of the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth founder David Brower initiated technical climbing at Pinnacles in 1934. Tens of thousands have enjoyed the Park’s crags since then. Aside from enjoying our sport, climbers have also shouldered the burdens of protecting and enhancing Pinnacles. We work with the good people of the NPS to support their mission. Climbing culture is strong at Pinnacles and that culture is one of stewardship. I shared that with the Gateway folks. Here’s a link to an article about my presentation:  https://benitolink.com/features/pinnacles-gateway-partners-welcomes-veteran-rock-climber?fbclid=IwAR3a8ES_MGZmY78LN8b83Zb41rZF7lXYjYuTdh4UyID36Z2nWdjTDxxkYZk

A Bear for Lunch

Editor Richard Loller generously added this Yosemite reminiscence to his Preservation Foundation site. When you take teenagers to mountains where bears reside, they will inevitably meet. Here’s the link:

http://www.storyhouse.org/robertwa2.html