[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 6] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page 8680] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]HIGH ODYSSEY II: THE SIERRA IN THE WINTER OF 1999 ______ HON. GEORGE RADANOVICH of california in the house of representatives Wednesday, May 5, 1999 Mr. RADANOVICH. Mr. Speaker, seventy years ago, while Californians were experiencing the security and success of the roaring twenties, a lone mountaineer was skiing his way up the 300 mile crest of the Sierra Nevada from south of Mount Whitney toward Yosemite Valley. This little known feat in the annals of American Mountaineering was accomplished prior to the existence of the John Muir Trail, the advent of organized search and rescue teams, or cell phones. Orland Bartholomew carried a 70-pound pack, a folding bellows camera and a double bit ax. He skied on custom made wooden skis without metal edges with only a crude wax system for climbing. He slept in a down robe with a half-tent and no stove. Fortunately, Orland wrote extensive journal entries and shot over 320 photographs of his adventure. Thanks to his son, Phil, these documents have been preserved. This spring, to celebrate this historic trip, a team of four skiers recreated this great adventure. In completing this trip they were successful in drawing attention to the legacy of this lone skier's accomplishment and its proper place in the history of mountaineering. Their stated goal was to encourage the U.S. Geological Survey to name a peak for Orland. By taking over 2,000 photographs and keeping detailed journals they also documented the state of the High Sierra during the last winter of the 1900's. The Fresno Bee has established a website to provide information on both of the trips and to report on the findings from their research. (www.fresnobee.com/man/trek) The High Odyssey II team followed as accurately as possible the original route of Orland Bartholomew based upon his original journals and photographs. They were assisted in their research by Phil Bartholomew and Sierra historian Gene Rose. The Team left Cottonwood Creek on April 2, 1999 and arrived in Yosemite Valley on April 28 after skiing 290 miles and crossing 20 passes over 10,000 feet. The four members of the Team are accomplished ski mountaineers and climbers with extensive winter experience in the areas in which Orland Bartholomew skied. They crossed high passes, did winter ascents of peaks en route, including Mt. Whitney, and forded rushing streams. At 17, Fritz Baggett represents the next generation of mountain adventurers. He has grown up in El Portal, the gateway to Yosemite, where he has climbed and skied since a babe in the backpack. He recently earned his Eagle Scout badge as a member of Yosemite Troop 50. As a musician and writer in the punk/shredder genera his contributions, like his skiing, are full of the zest and drive of true youth. Tim Messick has spent his adult life teaching others the joys of skiing the Sierra backcountry. As a guide for the Yosemite Mountaineering School and Yosemite Cross-County School since 1980, Tim has skied and guided extensively in the Sierra. He skied one of the first three-pin descents of LeConte Gully at Glacier Point and the Y notch on Mount Conness. His classic book, ``Cross-Country Skiing in Yosemite'' (now in its second printing), is a tribute to his skills as writer, teacher, and skier. Art Baggett has spent the past 25 years living in the Yosemite community. His mountain adventures include hiking the 2,040-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in 1973, a 21 day ski of the Sierra Crest on wooden Bonna 2000 skis with a makeshift three pin set up, and numerous big wall climbing ascents. Art's background as a teacher-naturalist, field biologist, small town attorney and former Mariposa County Supervisor provides another unique perspective from which to view the terrain. Art's published works include papers and lectures on the public policy and legal conflicts between the practice of prescribed burning and the Clean Air Act. The team would not be complete without a true historian and mountain sage. Howard Weamer brings not only the wisdon of a lifetime spent traversing the Range of Light on skis and on foot, but the keen eye of one of the best known Sierran photographers. His book, ``The Perfect Art,'' the history of the Ostrander Ski Hut and skiing in Yosemite is a tribute to those that have gone before and the 25 years he has spent as the hutkeeper of this Yosemite institution. I commend the courage and resolve of these present-day mountaineers to help us to learn more of those that came before and that are part of the heritage of the great state of California and the United States frontier. Further, based upon their efforts, I will renew my efforts to ensure that the United States Geological Survey name a Sierra peak in honor of Orland ``Bart'' Bartholomew, a Sierra High Adventurer. ____________________