In the distance: Pilot Peak, a landmark for pioneers such as those of the ill-fated Donner-Reed party (many of whom perished in the winter snows of Donner Pass, California). With my cellular phone in hand, and having faced one danger after another during my three-hour ascent, I felt psychically connected to those brave souls of the mid-nineteenth century.

The first time I witnessed a telephone call on a mountain summit was in the late 1980s, when a member of our scrambling party got out his ham radio and placed a call (patched into the phone network) to his wife at home. It was bizarre beyond words to listen in on a phone conversation in the wilderness.

Joe Tripod was as solid as a rock when helping me here.