Orland “Bart” Bartholomew is recognized as the first person to ever ski the high Sierra between Mount Whitney and Yosemite National Park. Even with the high-technology equipment available now, the 300-mile trek is done only occasionally these days. Bartholomew did it alone in 1929 on heavy, wooden skis, and he carried a 70-pound pack. A snow surveyor and hydrographer by profession, Bartholomew went through avalanche-prone areas and frozen granite passes, taking photographs with a folding-bellows camera. He took a photograph of himself standing at the summit of 14,497-foot Mount Whitney, after becoming the first person to scale the mountain in winter.
Read and add comments about this page