Before the days of Sprinter Vans, I spent a few seasons living in Yosemite in a Coleman children’s tent that I got from Walmart for $19.98. The packaging had a picture of a crosseyed kindergartner sitting inside and holding a purple dinosaur. I bought the tent because its shape most resembled the iconic Bibler I-Tent, the extreme shelter that often appeared in climbing magazines pitched on some impossible Himalayan ridge. I seam-sealed the kids’ tent on my parents’ front porch, and loaded it up into a rusting Nissan Sentra alongside a crate of climbing guidebooks and literature, knock-off Czech cams, and a red Petzl Ecrin helmet that sported a “Hey Fuck Face” sticker parodying The North Face logo. Then, I headed west to Yosemite. I’d climbed in Yosemite several times before, during summer breaks from college. I climbed with strangers who held no discernible climbing experience whatsoever. I pawed my […]