h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At last the weather has given up its vendetta against me, and I was able to spend all afternoon sitting on a bench in the sun, in my new summery getup. I chatted with a retired Naval seaman, who told me about the three years he'd spent in Antarctica in the Sixties: the seals and whales, the colours the sunlight made on the ice, the holidays he'd taken in Cape Town when he'd had leave. We gradually lapsed into silence and gazed companionably at the mountains. They looked all soft and hazy today, like Saharan dunes under clouds so still they could have been painted on.

"That one there's my favourite mountain," I said, pointing at Tryfan.

"Okay, you've got to use your imagination, now," he said. "'Ave you ever seen a photograph of Queen Victoria? Yes? You know what she looks like? Okay, now look at that mountain again."

Suddenly, there was the old queen's face, nestled between the slopes on either side.

"Eh?" he grinned. "Queen Victoria, lying in state. An' the more you look at it, the more it looks like 'er. It gets yer, doesn't it? Queen Victoria."

The question is has that ruined your enjoyment of the mountain?

I'm trying not to let it.

I'll have to look for visages in the mountains around me. I hope there's nothing scary.

The Americans weren't satisfied with looking and imagining. They carved some instead.

Don't forget to look inside/under the mountains too. The limestone caves are where some of the scary ones lurk.

Ever been to Cheddar Gorge, anyone?

Yes - hence the remark.

Here's a picture of Tryfan looking like Queen Victoria. It's not quite from the angle I view it, but it's the closest I could find. Her face is in profile at the top right, looking up at the sky.

http://www.travelmarker.nl/media/foto/postkaarten/engeland_wales_tryfan_and_lyn_ogwen.jpg


These pictures go towards explaining why Tryfan is my favourite mountain. I'm glad I got to climb it before my body packed in. I intend to climb it again one day. I've kept my mountaineering boots in good condition for the past ten years, on the off-chance.

http://www.wales.worldweb.com/Photos/MountainsLakesRivers/10-4533.html

http://www.mountainart.co.uk/pages/frames/tryfan_body.html

http://www.touchingthelight.co.uk/lightfor/coldridge.htm

Hi, SEF. Didn't see your post there. Yeah, Cheddar Gorge is really something, isn't it? And a huge range of colours on those monsters, as I recall.

Tryfan at Sunrise: stunning! Thank you for the gorgeous pictures.

Here's a sunset view from a makeout point where I grew up:

www.astr.ua.edu/keel/ telescopes/licksunsetx.jpg

The inversion layer over Silicon Valley really does trap the smog in with the mist that comes north from Monterey Bay, and the color and thickness of the atmosphere really is this way, it is not a camera trick. The only thing missing from this photo is that even from this height, the lights of the city(ies) are discrete and they twinkle and dance. The local mountains there were pretty uniform as viewed from the valley, much of the California Coast Range is like any other portion, so there's no real remarkable peak to look at.

Interesting...the best picture of the mountains of Los Angeles is from a Unitedkingdomese site instead of an American one:

hthttp://www.bridgeandwickers.co.uk/stopover-details.aspx?productid=44769tp://www.bridgeandwickers.co.uk/stopover-details.aspx?productid=44769

Amazing pictures, Sea Change. I didn't know LA had mountains: all I ever see of it on TV is roads and more roads. Those mountains are stupendous!

Oddly, your links won't take me to the pictures: I had to go to the home pages and find them from there.

But, hang on--are you telling me you used to go and make out at an observatory? I guess it takes all sorts....

I don't know how to make links work properly. I am glad you found the pictures.

The Lick Observatory photo was definitely taken lower down on the mountain. And yes. The observatory isn't all that interesting, making out much better.

The mountains rise sharply out of LA. We don't remark on them more because even though they are as tall as (or even taller than) Ben Nevis, they aren't very tall at all by California standards. And half the year you can't see them for the air pollution. That photo was taken not too long ago, during one of the breaks in the heavy rain we got this winter when there was a cold snap. So the sky was clear, and there was a thin (probaly no thicker than a few inches but oh so pretty) layer of snow.

The Lick Observatory. Well, they gave it an appropriate name.

Are there many mountaineers in LA, then?

I don't rightly know that there's a special concentration of mountaineers in Los Angeles. It's not something that interests me a lot anymore. The city is certainly big enough to support such a thing.

There are some amazing rock-scrambles out in the desert east of here, and the Sierras, Mount Whitney, Half Dome at Yosemite, and Pinnacles near Big Sur (which has caves, too) all nearby. I would suppose that the local mountains aren't all that interesting to a real mountaineer. The portions of the Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains that are exposed and climbable are probably owned by somebody, and the parts that are in the Angeles National Forest (something of a misnomer, as it is mostly chapparal) are hard going though all the hostile semi-desert flora. Another hazard is that most of them have a lot of decomposed granite deeply weathered on their surfaces due to the heavy faulting around here, so setting in a piton or axe might get you a big hole and no purchase.

America is so breathtakingly beautiful.

Speaking of faces and colourful monsters, the rocks of mountains and caves aren't the only places to look/create them. The vegetable revolution will happen yet...
http://mattwork.potsdam.edu/projects/photos/Caribbean%20Vacation%20-%2012.14.02-12.21.02/PC140019.JPG
but sometimes they just want to be loved:
http://www.tricks4u.com/images/ART/FOOD/Watermelon%20roses2.JPG

This week's 'Outdoors' section of the Los Angeles Times has proved me wrong. It appears there are a number of local peaks whose trails are good practice for conquering Mount Whitney.


Folk I know who have visited or lived on your islands always tell me that they are lovely, so Tryfan can't be your only beauty spot. America is just much bigger, is all. Now if I were Texan, I might expand on that a bit.

Tryfan is part of the Snowdonia National Park, which is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. But no, the UK does have many places of beauty for such a small couple of islands. It's just that Snowdonia is the best. Not that I'm biased or anything, oh no, not I.

Those Los Angeles mountains, though, I must admit, are breathtaking. But what a name! Mount Whitney!? What did you Americans have to go and name it after some middle-of-the-road pop singer for?

Hee! Probably got named for a local mayor or governor.

At one time I knew the native name for it, but have since forgotten. I didn't get much past the treeline, I ended up spending the afternoon at a moss covered tarn because of altitude sickness. It is just as well, because one of my team ended up getting stranded on a glacier and had to be expensively evacuated via helicopter. If I were able to hike up there, I'd have probably been stuck with him because he & I tended to go where most of my geology class wouldn't dare.

There was another famous peak near Death Valley, Telescope Peak, where you could see the Badwater, the Panamints and Trona, and I flew one of my rainbow winged box kites from it. I left a message in the tin there that I had been higher than anyone else. Given all the drug references there, I am sure that got misinterpreted.