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8/17/2019 Warnings Against Myself: Meditations on a Life in Climbing

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WARNINGS

AGAINST

MYSELF

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DAVID S TEVENSON

WARN INGS

AGA IN S T

MYSE L F

MED ITATI ON S O N

A LIFE IN CLIMBING

Seattle and London



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© by David Sevenson

Prined and bound in he Unied Saes of America

Design by Tomas Eykemans

Composed in Cassia, tpeface designed by Dieer Hofricher

Display tpe se in Monserra, designed by Juliea Ulanovsky

Phoographs are he propert of David Sevenson

unless credied oherwise.

All righs reserved. No par of his publicaion may be reproduced

or ransmied in any form or by any means, elecronic or mechan-

ical, including phoocopy, recording, or any informaion sorage or

rerieval sysem, wihou permission in wriing from he publisher.

www.washington.edu/uwpress

Caaloging informaion is on file wih he Library of Congress

----

Te paper used in his publicaion is acid-free and mees he mini-

mum requiremens of American Naional Sandard for Informaion

Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Prined Library Maerials,

.–. ∞



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For my sons,

Macklin Sevenson–

Slow your roll and hold your own

A million miles, a million roads.

—Macklin Sevenson

and

Dougal Sevenson



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Even hough we navigae daily hrough a percepual world of hree

spaial dimensions and reason occasionally abou higher dimen-

sional arenas wih mahemaical ease, he world porrayed onour informaion displays is caugh up in he wo-dimensionalit

of he endless flalands of paper and video screen. All communi-

caion beween readers of an image and he makers of an image

mus now ake place on a wo-dimensional surface. Escaping his

flaland is he essenial ask of envisioning informaion—for all he

ineresing worlds (physical, biological, imaginary, human) ha

we seek o undersand are ineviably and happily mulivariae in

naure. No flalands.

—Edward ue, Envisioning Information



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Contents

Inroducion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Warnings agains Myself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Speaking in Code: Conversaions and Reflecions

on Climbing, Language, and he Religion of he French . . . . .

Te Purposes of Ascen: Episodes and Conversaions

on Advenure, Climbing, and Wha I All Migh Mean;

An Accoun of went Years in he Wes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Climber as Wrier: From he Armchair o he eons . . . . . . . .

Las Dance of he Wu Li Maser: A Disanced

Appreciaion of errance “Mugs” Sump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Virga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Unehered in Yosemie: A Repor from Paradise

in he Las Summer of he Millennium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shor Walks wih McInerney: Tree Classic Pilgrimages . . . . .

Supersiious: Mon Blanc, French Alps

Sruck: Longs Peak, Rocky Mounains

In he Bugs: In he Canadian Rockies

Axe of Conriion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Byron Glacier, June , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Eros on he Heighs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



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Te ower and he Riddle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lives of he Volcano Poes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Here Comes Ol’ Flaop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A Shor Culural Hisory of he Ice Axe

in he wenieh Cenury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tree Dreams of Mounains, Lae Fall . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Whillans, Hason, and Me: A Disanced Appreciaion

wih a Couple rip Repors, Conexualized . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In he Very Big Ice House: ravels on he Harding Icefield . . . .

Lis of Illusraions

Acknowledgmens



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WARNINGS

AGAINST

MYSELF



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INTRODUCTION

Since i is cerainly no cusomary for an auhor o dis-

cuss his own work, perhaps a word of apology, or a leas

an explanaion should occupy firs place.

—Tomas Mann, “Te Making of

Te Magic Mountain,”

Warnings against Myself accrued essay by essay over more han

went-five years, beginning in abou . I began climbing in .

By , some of he evens I was wriing abou had already been un-

ruly residens in he reasure house of memory for eigheen years.

If aken as a whole, hey migh be read as a kind of mounain-

eering memoir. If so, i is one ha leaves ou enormous amouns

of my life, such as my family life and my working life, all of which

unfolded in he foreground while my mounaineering life occurred

mosly in he margins or waied in he wings.

Bu I never se ou o wrie a memoir, nor have I done so.

Te wriing is no chronological, nor necessarily linear. Mos of

he essays—he ones I like bes anyway—migh bes be described as

recursive. I’ve added as posscrips he year he essays were wrien

and a noe from he presen reflecing on how hey srike me now.

Te more recen essays require less commenary.

I se ou o wrie lierary essays, by which I mean somehing more

sophisicaed han a radiional mounaineering rip repor. Te re-

pors colleced in he annual American Alpine Journal are models of

his radiionally minimalisic and journalisic stle. Tose repors



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INTRODUCTION

a road, deah o sleeping, life o dreaming. Tose are he grea me-

aphors because hey respond o somehing essenial.” My memories

are no meaphors, bu hey are like hem in heir essenialit.If I didn’ se ou o wrie hese essays as a book, I did a leas se

ou o wrie, jus as I se ou o climb. For many years climbing came

more easily o me wih is insisence on focus, is engagemen of he

senses, is immersion in he naural world. Prufrock measured ou

his life in coffee spoon; erry empes Williams measured hers in

birds, a leas she did during he ime recouned in Refuge; for me

i’s mounains.

Te challenges of he blank page were harder for me o commio, a longer, slower road. Noneheless, I have ried o adhere o To-

reau’s dicum: “If one advances confidenly in he direcion of his

dreams, and endeavors o live he life which he has imagined, he

will mee wih a success unexpeced in he common hours.”

I don’ know abou “confidenly,” and as far as “success” goes, all

I know is ha I coninue o climb, and wrie, all in he direcion of

my dreams.

DDS

Anchorage, Alaska

Sepember



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