Choreographies of Landscape. Sally Ann Ness
Amna Shiekh climbing on the Columbia Boulder, October 2008. Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Figure 1.2. Moore climbing Jacob’s Ladder, April 2008. Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Figure 2.1. Jamcrack’s vertical crack, a typical feature in Yosemite’s granite walls. Photo by Derick Fay, May 2010 (from the collection of Sally Ann Ness).
Figure 2.2. Author climbing on the unnamed crack before the incident occurred. Photo by Darrell Logan, May 2010 (from the collection of Sally Ann Ness).
Figure 2.3. Author at the top of the unnamed crack climb after the speech act occurred. Photo by Charlotte Tonnies Moore, May 2010 (from the collection of Sally Ann Ness).
Figure 3.1. Half Dome seen from Glacier Point, July 2005. The face of Tis-se-yak is said to be visible in the upper right quadrant of the north face. Photo by Katie Manduca (from the collection of Sally Ann Ness).
Figure 3. 2. Vernal Fall Bridge, June 2012, taken at around 8:00 AM, at the beginning of an overnight trip to the summit of Half Dome. Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Figure 3.3. Backpackers on the alternate route up to the top of Nevada Fall, June 2012. Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Figure 3.4. Bridge at the top of Nevada Fall, June 2012. Photo by Robert Finch II (from the collection of Sally Ann Ness).
Figure 3.5. View of summit from the end of the fourth stage, June 2012. Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Figure 3.6. View from the top of Subdome, June 2012. Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Figure 3.7. Cables of the final stage of the Half Dome hike, June 2012. Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Figure 5.1. Yosemite Valley’s eastern end, October 2008. Half Dome is to the right. Royal Arches and Washington Column are in the center. Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Figure 5.2. A frontal view of Royal Arches, September 2008. Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Figure 5.3. El Capitan, October 2005. Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Figure 5.4. Ranger in Camp 4, Yosemite Valley, October 2008. Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Acknowledgments
This book has been more than a few years in the making. It would not have been possible without the assistance of many generous and talented people—just the sort of people Yosemite seems prone to attract. Space will not permit a complete listing of all who deserve acknowledgment, and I apologize to those whose names do not appear. I am no less grateful to them for having been unable to include them here.
The field research for this study required support both inside and outside the park. I am indebted to climbers Alan Moore and Darrell Logan, who volunteered to lead the climbs in Yosemite and who offered technical advice and assistance throughout my practice. This project literally would not have gotten off the ground without them. I am also indebted to climbers Ariel Bohr and Charlotte Tonnies Moore, who volunteered to serve as partners and coaches in gym training and who also accompanied me on climbing trips to Yosemite, as well as reading and responding to early drafts of various chapters. Both were key figures enabling the development of my climbing practice. Thanks are also due to climbers Doug and Sarah Jo Dickens, Drew Hecht, Shannon Moore, Young Hoon Oh, Amna Shiekh, John Vallejo, and Lyn Verinsky and to my climber/colleague Derick Fay, all of whom provided much appreciated information and in many cases climbing support and assistance as well.
In addition to the support given by climbers, my practice was also enabled and strengthened by Pilates trainer Kathryn Scarano, as well as by Drs Mary Ann Magoun, Melinda Ogg, and Hee Chul Kim and nutritionist Mary Sullivan. All of these individuals played essential roles. Their expert care is humbly acknowledged.
I am also thankful for the field research assistance of Katherine “Katie” Manduca, Deirdre Sklar, Katherine Kendrick Graham and Robert Graham, Justine Lemos, Celia Tuchman-Rosta, Jun Ginez, Patrick Alcedo, Shyh-Wei Yang, Robert Finch II, Channing Carson, and Ernesto Carlos, who accompanied me into Yosemite on various visits and/or provided every kind of field support imaginable (really). While visiting the park, I am especially grateful for the assistance generously given to me by Yosemite assistant superintendant Scott Gediman, Yosemite research librarian Linda Eade, and Yosemite park rangers Joy Sellers Marschall and Mark Marschall. These individuals are living proof that the “service” in the U.S. National Park Service continues to mean something very real and admirable.
With regard to the field research process, I also would like to acknowledge the late Steven P. Medley (1949–2006), who was serving as president of the Yosemite Association when my ethnographic research began, Christy Holloway, who chaired the Yosemite Association’s Board of Trustees during the years when my research in the park was most active, and the many members of the former Yosemite Association (now reorganized within the Yosemite Conservancy) who either served as volunteers in the park during the times that I myself camped there or who agreed to serve as interview subjects of the oral historical Yosemite Visitors Project I conducted, or both. What I learned from “YA” and its membership forms the backbone of my understanding of what it means to be a visitor in the Yosemite landscape. The greater part of that learning and the findings of the oral historical research await publication in a future volume. However, while there are too many individuals to name them all here (although every single one merits recognition), I would like to acknowledge especially Kathy Hopkins, Nancy Ornee, and Helen Brohm, who acted as extraordinarily helpful, exemplary YA members in support of my research process.
With regard to the writing process, I am grateful to colleagues David Crouch, Mark Franko, Gary Fuhrman, Justine Lemos, Shakina Nayfack, Young Hoon Oh, Jonathan Osborn, and Paul Ryer, who read and commented on earlier drafts of various chapters. Sincere thanks are due to Steve Coleman and the attendees of the Anthropology Department Seminar of 25 April 2012, at Maynooth National University of Ireland, for their comments and responses to what has become the volume’s introduction. Members of Temple University and University of California, Riverside Dance Departments also provided helpful comments and suggestions in response to portions of the introduction read during lectures presented on both campuses in 2014. Some ideas in the introduction concerning the rhetorical branch of Peirce’s semeiotic and its relation to ethnographic research also took their initial form in comments made in the “Presentation” of the 2012 special double issue “Anthropological Inquiries,” written for the journal Recherches sémiotiques/Semiotique Inquiry. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the journal’s editor, Martin Lefebvre, in this regard. The participants of the 2008 “Transmissions” working group of the American Society for Theatre Research provided helpful comments on very early drafts of chapter 1. Thanks are also due to Nell Quest and Fran Mascia-Lees, who included an early version of chapter 2 on the panel “Sensing the Political: Materiality, Aesthetics, and Embodiment,” organized for the 2012 AAA Annual Meetings in San Francisco. Naomi Leite did the same with regard to chapter 3 on the panel “Touring Publics, Global Interconnections, and Interdisciplinary Engagements: Whither the Anthropology of Tourism,” organized for the 2013 AAA Annual Meetings in Chicago. In addition, grateful acknowledgment is made to Sharon MacDonald of the European Center for Cultural Exploration at York University (U.K.) and the participants of the 2013 invited lecture “Where the Scenic and the Obscene Meet: Ethical Subject Formations in Yosemite National Park,” who provided helpful commentary on an earlier version of chapter