For all who don't know, John Muir is a mountaineer from the 19th century who was a huge advocate for preserving American nature and is most notably credited with the creation of Yosemite National Park in California.
I'm reading one of his books currently, "The Mountains of California" which is an assortment of his experiences there; especially his study of glacier movement and how those movements slowly grind away at mountains to make massive valleys and fresh soil for the creation of forests.
Anyways, let me get to the point. He sometimes talks about how he managed to survive 12,000+ ft above sea level in unexplored land for weeks at a time. The only thing this man took out was a metal cup, tea, some bread, and anything he needed for his study. To make camp, he would sleep under pine trees on pine boughs with only the clothes on his back and a small fire just outside the tree.
One time, while attempting to be the first man to summit Mount Ritter in October, he got so far up the mountain (around 13500ft) that the only shelter available was a small bush beside a lake. During the night, an intense wind storm picked up, so he had to curl around his fire for warmth throughout the night. I looked up the average temperature in the nearest city to Mt. Ritter (June Lake, CA) and it is 24F average low!! Now imagine how cold that is on the side of a mountain in a wind storm.
How he survived, we may never know. I hope he was telling the truth. All I know is, we have succumbed to the comfort of our daily lives and have lost the iron-will that Muir had.
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