June 1979

YOSEMITE JUNE, 1979 VOLUME FORTY-SEVEN, NUMBER 6

Published for members of Yosemite Natural History Association Winter in Tuolumne Meadows s The following article, written by Chas. and Anne MacQuarie, is a small part of a journal they kept during their tour of duty during the past winter, at Tuolumne, as Nordic Patrol Rangers. The portions selected seemed to reflect best their response to the winter-bound Tuolumne area. The accompanying photos were made from their color slides; we regret that they couldn't be reproduced in color. Anne, (nee Woessner) was born in Yosemite. As a young girl she camped and backpacked into most areas of the Park with her parents. In 1976, she met Chas. at Tuolumne. A Briton from Kent, he'd done considerable climbing in England, on the Continent (including Mt. Blanc), Alaska and in South America and was on a climbing tour of North America. They were married in the spring of 1978, spent the summer in Alaska, and returned to the Park in the fall to take up their duties at Tuolumne. At the moment, they're in Alaska climbing Mt. Foraker, 17,000'. It presents a mixture of ice and rock climbing and stiff uphill hikes; its summit is but 3,000' short of Mt. McKinley. NOVEMBER ll : The Tioga road has closed for the winter. Our sense of relief is immense. For the past month we have been compiling lists and comparing prices, then actually buying our winter stores and moving to the meadows. Shopping for six months' of provisions was a new experience for us, and we were constantly being siezed with sudden doubts and fits of panic. "Did you remember the toenail clippers?", "How much flour?", "What about the sunscreen?", "Have we got enough beer?" To add confusion to the whole affair, we lost our months' worth of lists and comparison prices the day before we were going to start our shopping. (It fell out of Anne's bag while we were on B.A.R.T.) We spent a frantic evening trying the recompile the whole thing, and then went shopping the next day with the same nagging doubts, only this time in the large economy size. "Bulk buying saves money." This well may be true, but we spent more money in two days than we had in the previous four months. Our obvious savings were not immediately apparent. Even after we had both provisions and possessions safely installed in the Mountain Center — the winter Ranger Station — we were not freed from these nagging doubts. Our freedom from worry came with the closing of the road. For with the road closed, there was no point in worrying about it any longer. We could finally relax, start doing our job and enjoy our situation.

YOSEMITE JUNE, 1979 VOLUME FORTY-SEVEN, NUMBER 6

Published for members of Yosemite Natural History Association A Winter in Tuolunm e Meadows The following article, written by Chas. and Anne MacQuarie, is a small part of a journal they kept during their tour of duty during the past winter, at Tuolumne, as Nordic Patrol Rangers. The portions selected seemed to reflect best their response to the winter-bound Tuolumne area. The accompanying photos were made from their color slides; we regret that they couldn't be reproduced in color. Anne, (nee Woessner) was born in Yosemite. As a young girl she camped and backpacked into most areas of the Park with her parents. In 1976, she met Chas. at Tuolumne. A Briton from Kent, he'd done considerable climbing in England, on the Continent (including Mt. Blanc), Alaska and in South America and was on a climbing tour of North America. They were married in the spring of 1978, spent the summer in Alaska, and returned to the Park in the fall to take up their duties at Tuolumne. At the moment, they're in Alaska climbing Mt. Foraker, 17,000'. It presents a mixture of ice and rock climbing and stiff uphill hikes; its summit is but 3,000' short of Mt. McKinley. s NOVEMBER ll : The Tioga road has closed for the winter. Our sense of relief is immense. For the past month we have been compiling lists and comparing prices, then actually buying our winter stores and moving to the meadows. Shopping for six months' of provisions was a new experience for us, and we were constantly being siezed with sudden doubts and fits of panic. "Did you remember the toenail clippers?", "How much flour?", "What about the sunscreen?", "Have we got enough beer?" To add confusion to the whole affair, we lost our months' worth of lists and comparison prices the day before we were going to start our shopping. (It fell out of Anne's bag while we were on B.A.R.T.) We spent a frantic evening trying the recompile the whole thing, and then went shopping the next day with the same nagging doubts, only this time in the large economy size. "Bulk buying saves money." This well may be true, but we spent more money in two days than we had in the previous four months. Our obvious savings were not immediately apparent. Even after we had both provisions and possessions safely installed in the Mountain Center — the winter Ranger Station — we were not freed from these nagging doubts. Our freedom from worry came with the closing of the road. For with the road closed, there was no point in worrying about it any longer. We could finally relax, start doing our job and enjoy our situation.