Elevation elation: Harden carrying on affair with Sierra Nevada
- March 3, 2010
By Amy Alonzo Rozak
Union Democrat Reporter
Dave Harden’s personal calendar reads more like a travel itinerary than a monthly planner. January, climbing in Joshua Tree National Park; February, hiking and climbing in Chile and Argentina; March, climbing in Utah and sea kayaking in the Bahamas; April, birding in Arizona.
“Life is good,” says Harden, 58, a retired fire captain with 32 years under his belt. “I play all the time.”
For some, Harden’s idea of playing doesn’t sound like much fun. He once went 29 days without showering while trekking through the Himalayas. He’s shattered a wrist, fractured vertebrae and had a concussion. It’s all worth it though, according to Harden.
“I think it’s real important to have a passion in life,” he says. “There’s got to be something that moves you.”
For Harden, that passion is exploring the outdoors, most notably the Sierra Nevada.
Harden grew up in a large family in the Bay Area. When he was 16, his older brother, Jerry, invited him on a backpacking trip to the Emigrant Wilderness with several friends.
Harden was scheduled to work at his summer job the next day, but that didn’t deter him. Having never been on an extended backpacking trip, he jumped at the chance. The next day as he was headed into the mountains, his mom called his boss to give notice that Harden was quitting his job.
“By the time I got out of high school, I knew I wanted to get into the mountains,” he says.
Two years later, during his first year of college, Harden hiked into Lake Ediza near Mammoth to climb Mt. Ritter with Jerry. With no prior climbing experience, they taught themselves to rappel in preparation for the peak.
“I remember my first rappel, I was absolutely scared to death,” recalls Harden. “But by the time I got to the bottom, it’s all I wanted to do.”
Later, on the summit attempt of Mt. Ritter, he paused for lunch part way up the mountain, and then continued to lounge in the sun as his brother finished the climb.
After returning to the Bay Area, Harden joined the Sierra Club’s rock climbing section, taking climbing lessons on weekends. Harden recalls spending more time reading Sierra Club and mountaineering books than actual textbooks during his early college days at Santa Rosa Junior College and Cal State Hayward.
Since then, Harden has carried on a nearly 40-year love affair with the Sierra Nevada. Of the 140-something 13,000-foot named peaks listed in R.J. Secor’s “The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, and Trails,” Harden has hiked or climbed to the top of almost all of them.
“I have a goal to climb all 13,000-foot named peaks in the Sierra Nevada,” says Harden. He hasn’t officially kept count, but he estimates he’s been up about 120 of them. “I’m a bit of a peak bagger for sure.”
“You could take him blind in a helicopter, drop him off anywhere in the Sierra, and he could identify every peak and every route he has done,” says his longtime friend and climbing partner Brad Young. “He’s a walking encyclopedia.”
Young recalls one adventure he shared with Harden in Yosemite Valley. The duo left Sonora early in the morning, reaching Yosemite Valley around sunrise. The pair climbed Sentinel Dome and reached the summit at dusk.
Faced with a two-hour descent, they pulled out their headlamp only to have the bulb blow. Exhausted, the pair groped their way down the descent, eventually stopping due to being cold, tired and disoriented.
“I’m embarrassed to say it, but we ended up spooning,” says Young, as they waited for daylight. “It’s less embarassing than freezing your butt off.”
Micha Miller, of Columbia, another friend and climbing partner, has also logged many hours with Harden.
“We call him Mr. GPS,” joked Miller. “When you’re with David you don’t need a map. David is the map.”
Since 1992, Harden has also shared adventures with his wife, Pamela Blair, a longtime triathlete. The duo have traveled the world, which includes hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro and rafting through the Grand Canyon.
And although Blair occasionally climbs with Harden, “He takes it easy on me. We do fun things together,” she says. “I’ve been very blessed to have him in my life.”
Harden and Blair retired together on May 27, 2005 — Blair from a career in education and Harden from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, now Cal Fire.
Harden began his career with CDF in the San Mateo and Santa Cruz areas, where he worked for five years. He moved to the Mother Lode and continued to commute to the Bay Area for a year before transferring to Groveland.
During his 28 years working fires in the Sierra, Harden worked at CDF stations throughout Tuolumne and Calaveras counties.
But, says Harden, “You can’t do everything when you work. That’s why retirement is so great.”
Harden’s most recent adventure took him to Chile and Argentina to climb Tupengato, the 14th highest peak in South America. Coming within 600 feet of the 21,500-foot summit, Harden opted to turn around due to the extreme weather.
If he had reached the summit, it would have been a new altitude record for Harden. Although he didn’t reach the summit, Harden says, “It was just an amazing walk.”
When Harden does stay home in Sonora, he has plenty to keep him busy. He joined the Tuolumne County Aquatics Masters swimming program at 55, and last year completed a one-mile swim for the first time.
It was a big accomplishment, says Harden, since a year before he couldn’t swim the length of a pool. He gives slideshows at Skyline Place, where his mother lives. He’s also set goals of learning to speak Spanish and to play the acoustic guitar. And of course, keep exploring the Sierras.
“I’ll continue to do this until I’m in my 70’s I hope,” he says. “It’s all good. I’m having so much fun.”