High Sierra

The Sierra Nevada Mountains don't easily reveal their treasures, but this photographic compilation, the result of over 30 backpacking trips in the remote high country, reveals the spirit and beauty of a national gem through brilliant images. Focusing on carefully selected landscapes captured from virtually impossible vantage points, the photographs reflect a genuine Sierra backcountry experience.

Witness the disappearing edges between water and rocks at Lake Aloha, the scant vegetation peeking out between slabs of smooth granite in Cherry Creek Canyon, and read about the natural processes that led to the creation of waterfalls, glaciers, and lakes. The painstakingly crafted compositions demonstrate how light can determine the way one sees and remembers a landscape. Musings about the Sierra Nevada by naturalists, mountaineers, and writers, including John Muir, Norman Clyde, Jane Wilson Howarth, and Jack Kerouac, complement the arresting photography.

Features:
125 colour photos

About the Author

A self-taught photographer since high school, Fred Weyman, from Reading, PA, worked as an environmental toxicologist while performing as a guest soloist with a professional baroque chamber orchestra. He has backpacked in the Sierra Nevada more than 30 times over a period of 15 years. On his first Sierra hike his photographer's instinct was to reveal it to people who were unlikely to ever experience it: his family in Pennsylvania, friends in many places, and even Californians who had never been to a trailhead much less hiked from one.

In all his other trips, the goal remained to find scenes that draw in the viewer like he was, and to convey what it is like to stand in these mountains so engulfed in scenery that it is often difficult to choose which direction to look. His meticulous compositions encourage the viewer to duplicate the Sierra sensation best described by John Muir: "Thus every attempt to appreciate any one feature is beaten down by the overwhelming influence of all the others."