Descending Tenaya Canyon with his 78-year-old dad, a professional mountain guide almost drowns him by lowering him into a pool of water.
“When you arrive at Tenaya Lake, which sits at 8,150 feet, nothing looks difficult or desperate about the route’s start, but a short distance in the granite steepens and the plot
thickens. The descent covers ten rugged miles and drops 4,200 feet. There’s no trail, and during the scramble down there are plenty of places to break legs, crack skulls, and get swept away in high water. It takes capable teams a full day to complete, with time allotted for the odd picnic and a short nap in the California sunshine….
It has a long history of being dangerous, including this:
“In 1872, John Muir received no outside aid whatsoever when he solo-climbed out of Tenaya. Having barely begun, he slipped, smacked his head on a rock, was knocked unconscious, and tumbled downhill. A shrub stopped him just before a steep drop-off. He came to, dusted himself off, and climbed his way out with a concussion.”
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