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Far West Ski Association is supporting the campaign by Phil Bartholomew, the son of Orland Bartholomew, to name Mount Bartholomew – an unnamed 11,099-foot mountain near North Fork, CA in the Minarets, a section of soaring spires in the Ansel Adams Wilderness of the Sierra National Forest after his father. 

 

• Mount Bartholomew should be named to honor Orland “Bart” Bartholomew, a Sierra High Adventurer, who made an incredible three month, 300 mile solo mid winter trek skiing the Sierra crest from south of Mt. Whitney to Yosemite National Park - just for the challenge and the photographs. 
• Orland made the first winter ascent of Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states at 14,495’ and the first winter ascents of Mt. Langley and Mt. Tyndall, both over 14,000’ during this three month journey from Christmas Day 1928 to April 3, 1929. 
• A number of further details make this an amazing feat for a true mountain man. 
• Orland skied on custom made 6’ long wooden skis without metal edges with only a crude wax system for climbing and used ski poles made from hickory garden rake handles. 
• He didn't have a sleeping bag or much of a tent. 
• Bartholomew cut tree boughs and used them as a base to pitch a small shelter on the snow. 
• He built fires for cooking. 
• Orland wrapped himself in a down robe to sleep. 
• He carried a 70 lb pack, a folding bellows camera and a double bit ax. 
• Orland wrote extensive journal entries and shot 320 photos. 
• The trek is the equivalent of traveling from Pasadena to Salinas at an elevation of 9,000 feet through fierce blizzards and avalanche-prone canyons. 
• Gene Rose, author of “High Odyssey”, wrote that Bartholomew's three-month trek "stands as the ski exploration of the first half-century, unmatched as a feat of winter survival until very recently when solo ski expeditions reached both Arctic and Antarctic poles." 
• Orland worked for Southern California Edison as a hydrographer who measured the snowpack and stream levels to gauge how much hydroelectric power SCE could wring from the Sierra in the early 1920s. 
• Orland later worked as a ranger (fire guard in those days) in the Ansel Adams Wilderness of the Sierra National Forest for 20 years from the early 1930s to the early 1950s. 
• This campaign is also supported by Congressman George Radanovich of California's 19th Congressional District who has already written a letter of support which has been entered into the Congressional Record. 
• For further details, photos and a map of the trek, go www.fresnobee.com/man/trek/.

Please send your letter of support to:

 

Executive Secretary

Domestic Geographic Names Committee

U.S. Board on Geographic Names

c/o U.S. Geological Survey

523 National Center

Reston, VA 20192-0523

 

Also please send a copy of your letter of support to: Phil Bartholomew, 49812 Road 620, Oakhurst, CA 93644.

 

 

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