February 26, 2014
My first time in Yosemite, middle of the worst drought in 400 years, and the government had recently just shut down. The park, of course, was more beautiful than words can describe (luckily I brought a camera like a smart tourist), but another thing I found remarkable was the spirit of the people drawn to the majestic place.
Word-of-mouth told us (and I later confirmed online by finding some great articles in Rock Climbing Magazines telling their account) that some climbers on the face of El Capitan decided that they were just going to keep climbing up.
We (my mother, little sister, and I) had a sunset picnic facing El Capitan and as the light faded we saw them ourselves. Like tiny stars forming a constellation looking strangely like the one to the right in the sky, the lights of the climbers came on and we could just barely make out a tent someone had pitched on the sheer face of the rock wall (to sleep the night and continue climbing in the morning). We took in the amazing sunset and stars and imaged what it would be like to sleep in a tent like that suspended in mid air on a completely vertical rock face and it was awe-inspiring and humbling, the same way you feel when just taking in the majestic massiveness and beauty of the mountains- you feel how small you are and yet see how you’re part of it all at the same time- this vast universe of micro and macro-cosmic patterns.
The new Cosmos series was just about to launch, so I’d been thinking even more than usual about the stars, the multiverse, and all things astronomical and quantum, and I was positively *starstruck*. Here are a few of my favorite pictures I took on the trip:
Rhiannon Catalyst 