In 1833, a group of fur trappers led by Joseph R. Walker set out on an expedition from Wyoming to California through the Sierra Nevada. Their journey, beset by icy temperatures, near starvation, and fierce wilderness, brought them to the brink of disaster.
Almost two centuries later, another expedition, commissioned by Alta Journal and led by author and Alta contributor Robert Roper, followed in Walker’s footsteps. Prepared and equipped in ways their predecessors couldn’t have imagined, Roper and four companions faced many of the same challenges while managing to avoid having to eat any of their horses. (Which they didn’t have. They traveled on foot, snowshoe, and ski.)
In Issue 21 of Alta, Roper told the tale of this epic trudge in “Five Men, Six Days, and 34 Miles Across the Sierra Nevada.” That piece, though, described only part of the story.
In “Surviving the Sierra,” the latest Alta Serial, Roper takes you inside his mountain odyssey with day-by-day dispatches. From the highest highs (9,000 feet, to be exact) to the lowest lows, “Surviving the Sierra” tells the full story in sharper detail. Accompanied by unpublished you-are-there photographs and videos by Tod Seelie and Spencer Harding, this six-part series is the best way for you to join the adventure without risking frostbite.
Robert Roper, SP Parker, and Tod Seelie join Alta Live on Wednesday, December 14 at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time.
REGISTER
Sign up for Alta Serials today.
The Team
Robert Roper
Noted author and expedition scribe
“I had purposely trained for this trip, meaning I’d ridden my bike up some hills, gone swimming once a week, walked all over Berkeley listening to podcasts. I’d even hiked Mount Diablo twice. Some people might not consider that real training, since gyms and machines weren’t involved, but when I added trudging up steep Marin Avenue, where actual Himalayan climbers have been known to train, carrying a Random House dictionary and a phone book in my pack, my knees started to ache, so I backed off—no sense in overtraining, as I’ve heard it called.”
SP Parker
The expedition’s chief guide
“He’s been working in the Sierra and all over for 40 years. Sardonic but hearty. He wasn’t playing at being a guide; he was doing it, finding a way to survive in a country with a barely developed tourism sector for climbing.”
Omri Navon
Parker’s assistant and a beginner guide
“He was about six foot five, built more like an ultimate frisbee player than a fullback, cheerful about shouldering a huge pack every day, which he tossed to the ground or pulled back on top of him as if it were full of air.”
Tod Seelie
Photographer and cinematographer
“He was a gifted artist, someone with an instinct for edgy scenes and up-to-the-minute culture clashes. His shots of people in nature, often on bikes, were full of pleasure. I would say that he was someone with a natural affinity for people in stressed, deranged modern settings.”
Spencer Harding
Photographer
“The path kept climbing. Spencer would disappear, darting ahead to position himself for shots of the rest of us coming along. I imagined many views of myself gasping for breath, wearing a stupid backpacker hat. He was distressingly fit. He did this sort of thing for a living, that was why.”
The Route
Because we know that you can never get too much of a good thing, we’re presenting this special Alta Serials season as a one-time binge. No need to wait on the edge of your inbox for Roper’s next installment: this is a journey you can experience all at once starting Monday, November 7.
The Journey
Day 1: The Zombie Forest
Roper and his companions start their journey at an elevation of 5,500 feet and begin climbing up, up, up.
Day 2: Into the Snow
Reaching altitudes of nearly 8,000 feet, Roper and his companions consider their approach to Deadwood Peak.
Day 3: Deadwood Peak or Bust
Faced with numerous land-navigation challenges, Roper asks himself, What would Walker do?
Day 4: The West Side of the Sierra Nevada
A scary descent to the raging Mokelumne River.
Day 5: The Tree of Life
On the western side of the Sierra Nevada, the team face what they’ve been dreading since they began this journey: a surging, whitewater river.
Day 6: ‘The Brink of the Mountain’
The Alta team begin their descent and the final leg of the journey.
Sign up for Alta Serials today.
