Mark D. Jacobsen

After our grueling almost-Half Dome day, we rest at Sentinel Dome and in Mariposa Grove.

Despite not winning a Half Dome permit in the lottery, we resolve to complete as much of the hike as we can.

Friendship needs to be a pillar of the well-lived life. It is in dangerously short supply today, especially for men. This is one reason why my daydreams of escape into the mountains will never entirely satisfy. I want a life rooted not just in good places, but among good people.

I reflect on Beth Rodden’s new memoir “A Light Through the Cracks: A Climber’s Story”, and what her and Tommy Caldwell’s story has meant to me personally.

Just as we are settling into routines in Truckee, we leave the area behind for Fresno and then Yosemite.

Life never ceases presenting challenges, twists, and turns. There will always be plumbing. A well-lived life has to be continually earned, over and over again, moment by moment.

My wilderness journey thus far has been a tale of escalating adventure: arrival, settling in, hiking, rock climbing. The words have come easy. Today is different. It is a day of labored progress, creeping self-doubt, and persistence.

After completing my first multi-pitch climbing lead, I reflect on fear and the value of breaking through limits into the unknown.

Travel forces a reckoning with the question: what is it that we’re seeking?

The wilderness poses a challenge: to lift our eyes, to look beyond ourselves, to see a world more rich and immense than we can imagine.

We all inhabit the tension between our commitments and our desire to escape. This is as it should be.

For the next three weeks, I plan to blog about my post-military retirement trip to the Sierra Nevada mountains.