Cell Phones in the Wilderness

Spurious spruce (Business Week)"Go for Verizon Wireless and stay away from T-Mobile," writes Alena Samuels (LAT). "Although your best bet is probably to get a homing pigeon."

The LA Times compares reception in the national parks.

Muir & Yosemite

Tony Perrottet writes a balanced profile of the man who made the place famous.

Smithsonian magazine, July 2008.

Backcountry Sequoia Burns

(The Clover Fire, Backcountry Sequoia National Forest, from US 395, June 22, 2008. Photo: Steve Hyman, LA Times) "The fire has burned about 4,000 acres," writes Steve Hyman on his Bottleneck Blog for the LA Times, "and grew big enough that the U.S. Forest Service had to divert hikers from the Pacific Crest Trail over the weekend."

Smoke continued to clog the skies across the Eastside of the Sierra into Tuesday.

New Yosemite Climbing Exhibit

Granite Frontiers: A Century of Yosemite Climbing.

June 7-October 27.
The Yosemite Museum.

Hosted by the Yosemite Climbing Association and the U.S. Park Service.

Writes Stewart Green: "Some of the displayed stuff includes a RURP (Realized Ultimate Reality Piton) used by Royal Robbins when he soloed the Muir Wall in 1968; Lynn Hill’s climbing shoes from her landmark 1993 free ascent of El Cap’s Nose; and two of the famous “Stoveleg” pitons, made from a wood stove’s legs, that were used on the first ascent of the Nose in 1958. You’ll also find historical videos and photographs, as well as a granite wall where your kids can plug cams and wired nuts in cracks."

P.S. Rumor has it this exhibit may one day become a museum in its own right, adjacent Camp IV, on the site of the old Yosemite Lodge Gas Station.

Dean Potter Solo on the Nose of El Cap

Verizon Takes the Desert

(Dust Storms over Badwater, June 2007. Burke Griggs Photo.)"When you get into Death Valley National Park, which is where I spend a lot of time, Alltel is the only game out there," said Dan Yahro of Bishop, CA, voicing concerns that Verizon's $5.9 billion takeover bid might leave desert dwellers (and travelers) stranded in silence.

Peter Svensson, AP.