rocky mountain wire rope utah made in china

“A RIGGER HAS A DEFINITE OBLIGATION TO HIS FELLOW WORKMAN, TO HIS EMPLOYER AND TO THE PUBLIC TO SEE THAT HIS EVERY ACT IS PERFORMED IN THE SAFEST POSSIBLE MANNER … A MISTAKE ON THE PART OF THE RIGGER CAN EASILY CAUSE THE LOSS OF LIFE AND THE DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY … A CAREFUL RIGGER DOES NOT GUESS OR PLAY HUNCHES, HE HAS TO MAKE SURE HE IS RIGHT BY CHECKING HIS GEAR AND RIGGING METHODS AGAINST PROVEN AND ACCEPTED RIGGING STANDARDS.”

“A RIGGER HAS A DEFINITE OBLIGATION TO HIS FELLOW WORKMAN, TO HIS EMPLOYER AND TO THE PUBLIC TO SEE THAT HIS EVERY ACT IS PERFORMED IN THE SAFEST POSSIBLE MANNER … A MISTAKE ON THE PART OF THE RIGGER CAN EASILY CAUSE THE LOSS OF LIFE AND THE DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY . . . A CAREFUL RIGGER DOES NOT GUESS OR PLAY HUNCHES, HE HAS TO MAKE SURE HE IS RIGHT BY CHECKING HIS GEAR AND RIGGING METHODS AGAINST PROVEN AND ACCEPTED RIGGING STANDARDS.”

CLEVELAND, OH – Mazzella Lifting Technologies, a Mazzella Company, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Denver Wire Rope & Supply. This acquisition will strengthen Mazzella’s footprint west of the Mississippi River and reinforce Mazzella’s commitment to be a one-stop resource for lifting and rigging services and solutions.

Denver Wire Rope & Supply has been in business since 1983 and services a variety of industries out of their location in Denver, CO. Denver Wire Rope & Supply is a leading supplier of rigging products, crane and hoist service, below-the-hook lifting devices, and certified rigging inspection and training. Effective immediately, Denver Wire Rope & Supply will operate as Mazzella / Denver Wire Rope. Terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

“Denver Wire Rope & Supply will complement the wide range of products and services that Mazzella Companies offers. We are dedicated to being a single-source provider for rigging products, overhead cranes, rigging inspections, and rigging training. Both companies commit to a customer-first mentality, providing the highest-quality products, and leading by example when it comes to safety and sharing our expertise with customers and the market,” says Tony Mazzella, CEO of Mazzella Companies.

“Our team and family are excited to be part of the Mazzella Companies. This acquisition strengthens our place in the market and allows our team to continue to provide excellent service and products to our valued customer base and expand our offering,” says Ken Gubanich, President of Denver Wire Rope & Supply.

“Over the years, we have had numerous companies show interest in purchasing Denver Wire Rope & Supply, none seemed to be the right fit. We are looking forward to becoming a part of an aggressive, passionate, and progressive organization. As a family business for over 36 years, it is important to us that our customers/friends, suppliers, and team members continue to be treated with first-class service, products, and employment opportunities. Again, we are very enthusiastic about our future and look forward to being a quality supplier for your crane, safety training, rigging, and hoisting needs for years to come,” says Gubanich.

“We wish Ed and Carol Gubanich all the best in their retirement. We welcome Ken and the other second and third-generation Gubanich family members, as well as the entire Denver Wire Rope Team, into the Mazzella organization,” says Mazzella.

We’ve changed our name from Denver Wire Rope to Mazzella. Aside from the new name and logo, our member experience is virtually unchanged. Here are some common questions and answers related to this change.

In 2019, Denver Wire Rope & Supply was acquired by Mazzella Companies to expand lifting and rigging products and services to the western half of the United States.

In 1954, James Mazzella founded Mazzella Wire Rope & Sling Co. in Cleveland, OH. For over 65 years, the company has grown organically by nurturing historic relationships, expanding its product offerings, and entering new markets through acquisition.

Geneva Rock Products, Inc. owns and operates the Hansen Pit, a surface sand and gravel mine for construction materials. The mine is located in Draper, Salt Lake County, Utah.  Jim Golding, President, is the principal official and Ed Clayson, Production Manager, is in charge of health and safety at the mine. The mine operates five to six days a week with two, ten-hour shifts per day.  Total employment is forty-eight miners.

At approximately 12:30 p.m., Hardy returned to the area.  Jacobson and Hardy rigged the replacement discharge chute assembly using three wire ropes ¾-inch x 10-feet long.  One of the three wire ropes had a ¾-ton come-along attached between the wire rope and the lifting point to facilitate tilting the chute assembly.

Gary Hatch, Safety Director, called the Department of Labor National Contact Center (DOLNCC) at 2:19 p.m. on March 14, 2018, and notified MSHA of the accident.  DOLNCC notified Peter Del Duca, Staff Assistant, in MSHA’s Rocky Mountain District.  MSHA issued an order under provisions of Section 103(k) of the Mine Act to ensure the safety of the miners and began the investigation.  MSHA issued a non-contributory citation for failure to comply with 30 CFR § 50.10, which requires the operator to immediately contact MSHA at once without delay and within 15 minutes once the operator knows or should know that an accident has occurred.

Miners rigged the chute assemblies for hoisting by using three ¾-inch x 10-feet long wire ropes, with two rigged to the top lifting points.  Miners attached the third wire rope to a

Coffing ¾-ton Model LSB-B come-along.  They attached wire ropes to the chute assemblies with 4-inch lifting hooks.  Investigators detected no signs of failure in the wire ropes and determined that neither the rigging nor the come-along contributed to the accident.

When a company focuses their entire business model on one thing, they do it very well. We certainly can say that at Rocky Mountain Wire, Rope, and Rigging, Inc., and so can our customers. For many years, Rocky Mountain Wire, Rope, and Rigging, Inc. have been the premier material handling specialists in the Salt Lake City area. Rocky Mountain Wire, Rope, and Rigging, Inc. is your one-stop shop for all your rigging supply needs. We offer products, services, and maintenance. Whether you need assistance with industrial moving, or are looking for supplies to do the job yourself, we can help you, as well as offer professional advice and consultation. We offer: Chains Hoists Rope Slings Wire rope Maintenance Rigging Customers are of the utmost priority to us, and your satisfaction is always guaranteed. We are the specialists in wire rope, one of the sturdiest and most trustworthy supplies in professional material handling. Stop by during our office hours, or make an appointment for service by calling us today.

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The Camillus site has a section dedicated to all the knives they make in the USA, which you’d think would make this an easy section to fill out. Their USA knives page doesn’t tell us exactly where their USA factory is, though, and that just seems weird to me. After some digging, I did find that Acme United purchased a factory and distribution center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina back in 2016, and since I can’t find any reference to any other USA factories, I’m going to assume that’s where Camillus makes their American-made knives.

In Flytanium’s case, it really seems like an obvious step, although I’ll admit to being surprised by their first design. As of this writing they currently only have one balisong knife out, but my understanding is it’s pretty good and unique for a butterfly (they aren’t my thing, so I wouldn’t know). The important part for this blog is that they make the handle in their own factory in Utah. I’m not sure what the story with the blade is, but the company is full of clever machinists, so I’m guessing it’s a stock removal situation.

They started out doing things in Portland, and amazingly they’ve managed to keep their business there since 1983, making their tools in their factory then taking them up into the Cascade Mountains to test them.

A via ferrata is a climbing route that employs steel cables, rungs or ladders, fixed to the rock to which the climbers affix a harness with two leashes, which allows the climbers to secure themselves to the metal fixture and limit any fall. The cable and other fixtures, such as iron rungs (stemples), pegs, carved steps, and ladders and bridges, provide both footings and handholds, as well. This allows climbing on otherwise dangerous routes without the risks of unprotected scrambling and climbing or the need for technical climbing equipment. They expand the opportunities for accessing difficult peaks as an alternative to rock climbing and mountaineering, both of which require higher skills and more specialized equipment.

Via ferratas can vary in length from short routes taking less than an hour to long, demanding alpine routes covering significant distance and altitude (1,000 metres (3,300 ft) or more of ascent) and taking eight or more hours to complete. In certain areas, such as the Brenta Dolomites, it is possible to link via ferratas together, staying overnight in mountain refuges, and so undertake extensive multi-day climbing tours at high altitude. In difficulty, via ferratas can range from routes that are little more than paths, albeit in dramatic and exposed situations, to very steep and strenuous routes, overhanging in parts, demanding the strength—if not the technique—of serious rock climbing. Generally, via ferratas are done in ascent, although it is possible to descend them.

The origins of the via ferrata date back to the nineteenth century, but they are often associated with the First World War, when several were built in the Dolomite mountain region of Italy to aid the movement of troops. Over 1000 via ferratas currently exist in the European Alps.Italy and Austria. Others are found in a number of European countries and a few places elsewhere. Via ferratas have traditionally been associated with limestone mountain regions, notably the Dolomites and the Northern Limestone Alps, as the steep nature of the terrain creates the need for some form of protected paths, while the presence of ledges and natural weaknesses means relatively easy but rewarding routes can often be created. However, they are now found in a range of different terrains.

Simple protected paths, with ladders and basic protection aids, have probably existed in the Alps for centuries, helping to connect villages to their high pastures. Construction of what could be seen as the precursors of modern via ferratas dates back to the growth of Alpine exploration and tourism in the nineteenth century. In 1843, a route on the Dachstein was constructed under the direction of Friedrich Simony; it included a range of climbing aids with iron pins, hand hooks, carved footholds and ropes.Grossglockner, and in 1873 fixed protection was installed on the Zugspitze. In the Pyrenees, iron climbing aids were installed on the Pic du Midi d"Ossau in 1880, and in the Ordesa in 1881. The Northern Limestone Alps saw the first routes still in use today as via ferratas: the Heilbronner Way in the German Allgau Alps was constructed in 1899, shortly followed by the Eggersteig (1903) and Wildauersteig (1911) in the Wilder Kaiser in Austria.Marmolada (German: Marmolata) was installed in 1903, and the Possnecker Path up Piz Selva in the Sella Group was completed before the First World War.

In 1914 the Dolomites were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was part of the Central Powers during the First World War. In 1915, Italy joined the alliance of Britain, France, and Russia and declared war on the Central Powers. Austro-Hungarian troops were heavily committed in Russia and it immediately withdrew to a defensive line which ran through the Dolomites. The initially weak Austro-Hungarian troops were strongly supported by local old and very young men (Standschützen) who simulated a very strong line of defense for the attacking Italians. Only later could local elite troops such as Kaiserjäger and Kaiserschützen be relocated from the Eastern Front towards Italy. Until the Flitsch-Tolmein offensive (Battle of Caporetto) in autumn 1917 the Austro-Hungarians (supported by troops from Southern Germany) and the Italians fought a ferocious war in the mountains of the Dolomites; not only against each other but also against the hostile conditions. Both sides tried to gain control of the peaks to site observation posts and field guns. To help troops move about at high altitude in very difficult conditions, permanent lines were fixed to rock faces and ladders were installed so that troops could ascend steep faces.Mines on the Italian Front). Trenches, dugouts and other relics of the First World War can be found alongside many via ferratas. Since dangerous ammunition remains and the like can still be found today, warnings are given in the area of the former main battle line against digging and picking up old metal parts. There is an extensive open-air museum on 5 Torri, and around Lagazuoi, where very heavy fighting took place. This wartime network of via ferratas has been restored, although not until well after the Second World War: steel cables have replaced ropes, and iron ladders and metal rungs anchored into the rock have taken the place of the flimsy wooden structures used by the troops. Most of these routes are now maintained by the Club Alpino Italiano (CAI; Italian Alpine Club) and the South Tyrol Alpine Club (AVS).

In the 1930s, the Società degli Alpinisti Tridentini (SAT) together with the CAI began working on shortening and improving access to the climbing routes in the Brenta Dolomites, by installing artificial aids and protection. Natural lines and routes in the rock were linked up and a system of routes began to be developed, work continuing after the second world war. The Via delle Bocchette was discovered by mountain walkers and gradually gained a classic reputation in its own right, a reputation which it still retains.

Very steep to vertical, maybe short/well aided overhanging sections, mainly very exposed. Some climbing aids but often wire rope only. Strong arms and hands required.

Vertical to overhanging; consistently exposed; very small footholds or friction climbing, usually no climbing aids other than the wire. Sustained arm strength required. Easier sections may be unprotected.

One criticism of these grading system is that they ignore the severity and length of the difficulties – a long, high mountain route with extensive passages of grade D is very different from a short valley route also graded D, but with only a brief difficult section. To overcome this, additional ratings on the seriousness of the route are often provided – the Kurt Schall guides use a five-level adjectival scale; Smith and Fletcher use a three-point scale A–C. The old Hofler/Werner guidebooks use a single general grade on an A-G scale. Most guidebooks provide some further information to help assess the nature of a route, such as the length of the route, the maximum height reached, and even a grade for the quality of the protection.

For many years via ferratas were climbed using simple equipment – carabiners fixed to short lengths of rope or slings attached to a chest (or sit) harness, on the basis that one would not fall very far.fall factor (which in rock climbing does not normally exceed two) can be high.

However, in spite of these equipment developments and the perception of via ferratas as being more secure and safe than rock climbing, people are more likely to injure themselves if they do fall, partly because of these elevated fall factors and partly because there are often rungs and steps on which to land. After a fatal via ferrata accident in August 2012 where both elastic lanyards on the energy-absorbing systems (EAS) in a via ferrata set failed, the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) worked with manufacturers to identify and recall several models of EAS systems.

In the European Economic Area, energy absorbing systems for use in via ferrata climbing are classed as personal protective equipment (PPE) and are subject to the safety requirements and conformity assessment procedures of the PPE regulation (EU) 2016/425.

The other type of energy absorber is a metal braking device with a rope passing through it and attached to the harness. Previously popular, these have been largely withdrawn after the re-evaluation of via ferrata safety that occurred after a 2012 accident.

Carabiners are also made specially for via ferratas, their design typically allowing a larger-than-normal opening and having a spring locking mechanism that can be opened with one hand. They are also strong enough to withstand high fall factors. Such carabiners are marked with a K in a circle, the K standing for Klettersteig, the German term for via ferrata. These are the only types of carabiner that should be used on the end of the safety lines. A typical design uses a spring-loaded sleeve on the carabiner gate. While the gate is closed, the sleeve is held in place over the gate opening by its spring; to unlock and open the gate, the sleeve slides directly down the gate shaft away from the opening. The ease of opening these devices makes them suitable for via ferrata climbing, with its constant clipping and unclipping, but not for applications where more secure locking mechanisms (automatic or manual) are called for. However, locking sleeves on via ferrata carabiners have been known to hang up in the gate opening and prevent the gate from closing properly. Care must be taken to maintain (clean and lubricate) and/or replace the carabiners as needed to avoid this potentially unsafe situation. Also, these carabiners are not true "locking carabiners", as employed in roped climbing and caving systems, and should not be used as such.

It is a good idea to use tough gloves, as the steel cables may have some loose steel threads, and gloves help to protect your hands from abrasion caused by continuous contact with the steel rope and rocks.

Austria, with as of 2009 over 550 Klettersteige, is arguably the country that has most enthusiastically embraced the via ferrata – with via ferratas promoted as a way to experience nature and with the regional sections of the ÖAV (Austrian Alpine Club) basing many of their harder walks around via ferratas.Northern Limestone Alps. For many years route development remained focused in this area and it is only more recently that via ferratas have been built across the Austrian Alps. As a broad generalisation, routes in Austria fall somewhere between the long mountain routes of the Dolomites and the shorter sporting routes of France. That said, the via ferrata currently (2012) considered the hardest technically in the world is in Austria: the "Arena" variant of the Bürgeralm-Panorama-Klettersteig in Styria.

The Northern Limestone Alps, which run from near Vienna to the Swiss border, remain at the heart of Austrian klettersteig, with routes concentrated in key mountain groups: the Rax (where some of the oldest via ferratas are), the Hohe Wand, the Totes Gebirge, the Dachstein, the Wilder Kaiser, the Karwendel. The Dachstein mountains in Styria, in particular, are home to several notable via ferratas, including the Ramsauer Klettersteig, the Jubiläumsklettersteig, and on the northern side of the Dachstein, the Seewand Klettersteig, which is one of the hardest long routes in Austria. However, perhaps the highlight is the long and difficult Dachstein Super Ferrata, recently created by linking three routes, and possibly the most challenging via ferrata overall in Austria. Other notable routes in the Northern Limestone Alps are the Innsbrucker Klettersteig in the Karwendel and the Tajakante Klettersteig in the Mieminger Chain just to the east (both routes are in Tirol, near Innsbruck).

As well as historic via ferratas based on World War I fortifications, the Dolomites are particularly renowned for their dramatic high mountain via ferratas. Several of these provide challenging ways to reach some of the summits in the range. Among the more notable routes are:

The via ferrata Bolver-Lugli (constructed in 1970 by mountain guides from San Martino di Castrozza) ascends the Cimon della Pala the "Matterhorn of the Dolomites" as far as the bivouac Fiamme Gialle at (3,005 m). From there, the "Variation for the Summit", involving moderate climbing, is needed to reach the summit at (3,184 m).

Probably the most unusual via ferrata is the via ferrata Lagazuoi Tunnels. Fighting for control of Mount Lagazuoi in World War I, Austrian and Italian troops built a series of tunnels through the mountains. The aim was to tunnel close to the enemy and detonate explosives to destroy their fortifications. A via ferrata now uses these tunnels, allowing one to descend into and through the mountain.

To the west of the main dolomites, on the other side of the A22/E45 road, are the smaller Brenta Dolomites, which are compact but dramatic, and rise above the town of Madonna di Campiglio. The Brenta contain a dense network of via ferratas, the core of which is the Via delle Bocchette system, consisting of several sections, including the Sentiero Bocchette Alte and the Sentiero delle Bocchette Centrali. The northern end of the range can be reached by lifts from Madonna di Campiglio, and it is possible to spend several days at high altitude on the network of via ferratas, staying at mountain huts. However, in accordance with the wishes of the region"s climbers,

There are over 150 via ferratas in Italy outside of the Dolomites, most of them constructed fairly recently. There are notable concentrations at the northern end of Lake Garda, in the Aosta valley, in the mountains east of Lake Como and in the Friuli region, split between the Carnic and Julian Alps.

France saw its first via ferrata in 1988 – La Grande Falaise in Freissinière in the Ecrins. This was shortly followed by the via ferratas at les Vigneaux just to the north (the easier route, La Voie du Colombier, is the most popular in France with 15,000 climbers per year) and the Aiguillette du Lauzet, a little further north (a more traditional high mountain via ferrata).Massif Central, the Pyrenees and even in Corsica. They are well distributed across the six French grades, with handful each of F and ED, the bulk falling within the four middle classifications. As via ferratas have developed across the country, some have identified a distinct "french style, with metal rungs driven into improbable overhangs", spiced with wire bridges, and an emphasis on thrill seeking

There are several via ferratas in the Rugova Mountains, near Peja. The Ari via ferrata was conceived in 2012 and constructed with the collaboration of Italian and Kosovar alpine clubs.Zubin Potok and is the longest in and highest in the Balkans.

Several via ferratas (15 in 2020) are found in Norway, usually named by their Norwegian word klatresti which roughly translates as "climbing trail". The recent years have seen the construction of several new ones - via ferratas have less of a tradition in Norway than they have in southern Europe.

There is a via ferrata Tysso in Tyssedal, starting at the Norwegian Museum of Hydro Power and Industry and climbing along the very steep hydropower pipeline. Kyrkjeveggen ("the church wall") is situated in Fjæra in the fjord of Åkrafjorden. The route of Kyrkjeveggen elevates 500 meters to the top. There is also one in Hemsedal.Via Ferrata Loen in Stryn. It opened in 2012.Gjølmunnebrua. Trondheim boasts a via ferrata opposite the Trondheimsfjord on the Munken mountain, with views of the city.Setesdal is Northern Europe"s longestLom starts from 380 m MSL to end in 1524 m MSL, a record in Norway both in vertical metre and for the highest end point. Another via ferrata also opened in Åndalsnes in 2017.

As of 2022, there are at least twelve areas with via ferrata routes in Romania. Most routes are "sport" oriented, opened in recent years, with grades varying from A to E.Peștera Muierilor, in the Baia de Fier commune, Gorj county, where the latest route was finished in December 2021.Astragalus species of herbs) and can be found near Șugău River (Bicaz) – these routes were opened in Spring 2017 and are subject to a fee.Vadu CrișuluiArieșeni commune, in the Apuseni Mountains. The mountain rescue service in Harghita county built the route called "Wild Ferenc" in 2016, near Red Lake.

Via Ferrata Cornwall in Halvasso, an area near Penryn and Falmouth, is situated in a quarry site and features metal rungs, ladders, suspension bridges and zip wires.

There are several via ferratas in Canada, mostly privately operated. In 2002, the mountain guide François Guy Thivierge installed the first two via ferratas, with a zip line, in Canada, at the Canyon St Anne close to Québec City. In 2003, Thivierge developed 2 more via ferratas (with 2 zip lines) in Les Palissades de Charlevoix, 10 km north on 170 road from St Siméon. There is one in Arbraska Laflèche in Val-des-Monts, Quebec and a second one in Arbraska Rawdon in Rawdon, Quebec.

Western Canada has eight routes. The largest via ferrata in Canada can be found on Mt. Nimbus in the Purcell Mountains of British Columbia. One of two operated by Canadian Mountain Holidays, this via ferrata is accessible only by helicopter.Kicking Horse Mountain Resort near Golden, at the Sea to Sky Gondola near Squamish, and at Whistler.

Western Canada"s first public via ferrata is on Mt. Stelfox in Alberta, halfway between Nordegg and the Icefield Parkway in the Rocky Mountains; the trailhead can be picked up at the parking lot on the east side of the Cline River. The climb is about 180 m (600 ft) long and takes around 2 hours to return to the parking lot.Mount Ernest Ross and on Mt. Norquay.

A via ferrata in Wanaka is privately operated by a company called Wildwire Wanaka. The via ferrata includes a section running up a 60-meter waterfall, and is the highest waterfall via ferrata in the world.

One publication cited the "best" via ferratas in the United States to be: Waterfall Canyon, Utah; Torrent Falls, Red River Gorge, Kentucky; Nelson Rocks, West Virginia; Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Wyoming; Telluride, Colorado; Ouray, Colorado and Tahoe Via Ferrata, Palisades Tahoe, California.Royal Gorge Bridge in Cañon City, Colorado;Picacho Peak State Park;

REGULATION (EU) 2016/425 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 9 March 2016 on personal protective equipment and repealing Council Directive 89/686/EEC; OJEU L81/51 of 31 March 2016.

EN 958:2017 – Mountaineering equipment – Energy absorbing systems for use in klettersteig (via ferrata) climbing – Safety requirements and test methods.

"Hercegovački biser bogatiji za feratu: Planina Velež postaje svjetska alpinistička destinacija" [Herzegovinian pearl is richer for a via ferrata: Velež Mountain becomes world alpinistic destination]. Visit BiH (in Bosnian). 12 November 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2020.

Vladislavljevic, Brana (16 November 2018). "One of Europe"s most attractive via ferratas opens in Kosovo". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 11 November 2021.link)

"Já abriu a mais extensa Via Ferrata de Portugal em Proença-a-Nova". quilometrosquecontam (in European Portuguese). 31 December 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2022.

One of the earliest employers of Chinese was James Harvey Strobridge, later to become the Construction Superintendent on the Central Pacific Rail Road. Mr. Strobridge had 18 Chinese employees in 1852, working on his hay ranch in Sacramento County. One and one half years after ground breaking, on June 6, 1864, scheduled trains were running between NewCastle and Sacramento (31 miles from Sacramento) and on May 15, 1865 (28 months from ground breaking) rails reached Auburn, 35 miles from Sacramento. On May 31, 1865, Mark Hopkins wrote, in a letter to C P Huntington "There are today not above 1,600 men on the work. Two thirds of them are Chinamen...." A thorough searching of the payroll records of the CPRR, now located at the Library of the California State Railroad Museum, reflects at most 9,000 Chinese workers. As the work progressed, and the difficulty increased in supplying these workers with food and materials, Leland Stanford contracted with Brigham Young to bring in Mormon workers. Letters between Hopkins, Stanford and Crocker describe a "pulling back" of at least 5,000 Chinese workers at "Mormon Hill," now known as Toano, Nev., Mile Post 562, in the Spring of 1869. So, fewer than 5,000 Chinese workers were employed by the CPRR when Promontory Summit was reached, on May 10, 1869. When writing of Cape Horn, "The Great Trans-Continental Railroad Guide", published by Geo. Crofutt and Co. in 1869 says in part:" the men who broke the first standing ground were held by ropes." William Minturn in 1877, writing "Travels West", says "...hardy industrious Chinese were held and steadied by the aid of rope securely tied around their bodies." The "Pacific Tourist", again in 1877 "...the narrow ledge was gained by men who were let down by ropes from the summit." Cape Horn is not granite, it is shale — soft, easily broken, shale. The Official Report of the Engineer, dated December 1865, which when writing of Cape Horn, says in part "...The work at Cape Horn has proved less difficult and expensive than was first anticipated." So, who invented the baskets? In 1919, Edwin L. Sabin wrote "Building the Pacific Railway" in which he wrote "...laborers, yellow and white, were suspended by ropes while they hacked, drilled and blasted." But, in 1962. Wesley Griswold got carried away in "Work of Giants: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad" and wrote "...lower Chinese from the top of the cliff in wicker baskets ..."

Rocky Mountain National Park is home to beautiful wildlife and breathtaking vistas, and hiking is one of the most rewarding ways to explore this stunning range. But these mountains — with their high elevations, intense sun and rapid temperature fluctuations — can be potentially dangerous to the uninitiated. Check out our informative guide below to make your high-altitude hiking excursion a safe and enjoyable one.

Snacks: Rocky Mountain hiking trails are, by and large, located in remote areas where restaurants and grocery stores are hard to come by. Make sure to stock up on plenty of food before arriving at the park.

Get a star chart or star app:Due to their often remote locations, the Rocky Mountains enjoy dark skies. Having a star chart on hand will allow you to identify stars or formations. You can also download apps that will identify stars when you point your phone at them. While only 500 or so stars are visible from cities, you may be able to see up to 15,000 in some places in the Rockies.

Sun protection: The Rocky Mountains enjoy many sunny days a year, which means you’re more likely to get burned — especially at higher elevations where the sun is stronger. Cover up your face with a wide-brimmed hat and apply sunscreen over all your exposed skin. Sunglasses are also a smart choice, as they protect your eyes from getting burned. If you’re planning any water activities, buy some sunglass straps as well.

Keep in mind, Class 2 is a fairly broad category used to rate hikes of many different difficulty levels, so it’s best to thoroughly research the nature of these trails to see if it’s something you can handle, especially if you are planning a Rocky Mountain hike as a beginner.

A rain jacket: While the Rocky Mountain summers are famously dry and sunny, afternoon rainstorms are common and can interrupt an otherwise perfect day. Although these storms pass quickly, they also come with a dramatic drop in temperature, so you’ll want to have a jacket that will keep you both dry and warm. If a thunderstorm hits, make sure to take cover.

It’s vital to understand what illnesses high elevation can bring on and the differences between each one. The most common are acute mountain sickness (AMS), high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) and high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE). Do some research to learn what a person affected with each of these illnesses looks like and how to take action if someone in your hiking party experiences these symptoms. Here are some common signs of each illness.

Train at an intermediate elevation. If you live near a mountain range, you can go there to gradually acclimatize your body by training 1,000 feet higher each weekend.

Before setting off on your high-altitude trek, talk to your doctor, especially if you are planning a Rocky Mountain hike for beginners. Make sure you don’t have any undiscovered ailments that make a high-altitude excursion uncomfortable or dangerous. Also, if you’re on the trail and you’re not feeling good, be prepared to stop and go back. Even if it’s just a minor headache or chest pain, these symptoms may suggest something much more serious.

If you’d love to experience the top hikes in the Rocky Mountains without stressing out over the itinerary, consider booking an all-inclusive hiking tour with Wildland Trekking. Our professional, award-winning Colorado hiking guides adhere to high safety standards and create an unforgettable experience for our guests. Contact us here!

As the world’s premier hiking and trekking tour operator to Rocky Mountain destinations up and down the USA and Canada, Wildland believes in connecting people to fantastic environments in amazing ways. Check out our Yellowstone trips, Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem trips, and Rocky Mountain National Park Trips or connect with one of our Adventure Consultants: 800-715-HIKE

Though Rocky Mountain NP abounds in many types of climbing, the park"s peaks are best known for technical alpine rock and ice climbs, of which there are dozens of classics.  Some of the best known are listed here.

Notchtop, Spiral Route (II, 5.4)  The Spiral Route on Notchtop provides climbers with a striking line that literally “spirals” around the entire mountain. As elevation is gained up this unique formation, views of the entire region can be appreciated.  With a shorter approach than many other alpine routes, this makes for an excellent weekend outing consisting of one day of skills and a summit day.  Aspiring Climbers looking for a spectacular introduction to technical alpine climbing, look no further! (2 days, minimum)

Ypsilon Mountain, Blitzen Ridge (III, 5.4)  Blitzen Ridge is a long and classic ridge route with magnificent exposure. This line is identified with four distinct gendarmes or “ridge towers” known as the four aces, and signifies the beginning of the route’s difficulties. Even after we’ve gained this spectacular summit, our descent will be made down the beautiful 3rd class Donner Ridge.

Petit Grepon, South Face (III, 5.8)  The stunning South Face of the Petit Grepon is such an incredible route that it made the list in “Fifty Classic Climbs of North America”, a highly respected book written by Steve Roper & Alan Steck.  You might feel like you’re ascending a castle’s tower, as the route gets ever steeper and narrower through 8 pitches of high quality climbing.  The summit of this iconic spire is one of the best in the entire region.

Hallett Peak, Culp-Bossier (III, 5.8+)  Hallett Peak, whose imposing profile has come to be almost synonymous with Rocky Mountain NP, is also home to one of Roper and Steck"s "Fifty Classics", the Northcutt-Carter Route.  But a massive rockfall in the late 1990"s destroyed the lower part of the route, and it is now much less popular than in the past.

Spearhead, Syke"s Sickle (III, 5.10a)  Syke’s Sickle is a 7 pitch gem on one of the highest quality walls in all of Rocky Mountain National Park.  The route wanders up this glacially carved face on mostly moderate terrain over a series of flakes and cracks.  As climbers near the top, the 5.10a crux involves an intriguing roof slot several hundred feet above the valley floor that’s both exciting and beautiful.  This route is an exceptional outing in Glacier Gorge and is a must for any avid climber.

Mt. Meeker, Dream Weaver (Alpine/Water Ice 2-3, Mixed 2-3) This couloir to the left of Mt. Meeker"s Flying Buttress ascends the entire height of north aspect of the mountain from Mt. Meeker Cirque to the summit, all at a moderate difficulty.  The route comes into shape sometime in the late spring and early summer.  The combination of moderate but consistent climbing, direct access to Mt. Meeker"s 13,911-ft summit, and a non-technical descent down the Loft Couloir, make this an outstanding adventure.

I went to Mussel Rock that foggy afternoon in 1978 with the geologist Kenneth Deffeyes. I have returned a number of times since, alone or in the company of others. With regard to the lithosphere, it’s a good place to sit and watch the plates move. It is a moment in geography that does your thinking for you. The San Andreas Fault, of course, is not a single strand. It is something like a wire rope, as much as half a mile wide, each strand the signature of one or many earthquakes. Mussel Rock is near the outboard edge of the zone. You cannot really say that on one side of the big crack is the North American Plate and on the other side is the Pacific Plate, but it’s tempting to do so. Almost automatically, you stand with one foot on each side and imagine your stride lengthening—your right foot, say, riding backward toward Mexico, your left foot in motion toward Alaska. There’s some truth in such a picture, but the actual plate boundary is not so sharply defined. Not only is the San Andreas of varying width in its complexity of strands, it is merely the senior fault in a large family of more or less parallel faults in an over-all swath at least fifty miles wide. Some of the faults are to the west and under the ocean; more are inland. Whether the plate boundary is five miles wide or fifty miles wide or extends all the way to central Utah is a matter that geologists currently debate. Nonetheless, there is granite under the sea off Mussel Rock that is evidently from the southern Sierra Nevada, has travelled three hundred miles along the San Andreas system, and continues to move northwest. As evidence of the motion of the plates, that granite will do.

Deffeyes and I had been working in Utah and Nevada, in the physiographic province of the Basin and Range. Now he was about to go east and home, and we wandered around San Francisco while waiting for his plane. Downtown, we walked by the Transamerica building, with its wide base, its high sides narrowing to a point, and other buildings immensely tall and straight. Deffeyes said, “There are two earthquake-resistant structures—the pyramids and the redwoods. These guys are working both sides of the street.” The skyscrapers were new, in 1978. In an earthquake, buildings of different height would have different sway periods, he noted. They would “creak and groan, skin to skin.” The expansion joints in freeways attracted his eye. He said they might open up in an earthquake, causing roadways to fall. He called the freeways “disposable—Kleenexes good for one blow.” He made these remarks in the shadowy space of Second Street and Stillman, under the elevated terminus of Interstate 80, the beginnings of the San Francisco Skyway, the two-level structure of the Embarcadero Freeway, and so many additional looping ramps and rights-of-way that Deffeyes referred to it all as the Spaghetti Bowl. He said it was resting on a bog that had once surrounded a tidal creek. The multiple roadways were held in the air by large steel Ts. Deffeyes said, “It’s the engineer in a game against nature. In a great earthquake, the ground will turn to gray jello. Those Ts may uproot like tomato stakes. And that will seal everyone in town. Under the landfill, the preëxisting mud in the old tidal channel will liquefy. You could wiggle your feet a bit and go up to your knees.” In 1906, the shaking over the old tidal channel that is now under the freeways was second in intensity only to the San Andreas fault zone itself, seven miles away. “Los Angeles, someday, will be sealed in worse than this,” he continued. “In the critical hours after a great earthquake, they will be cut off from help, food, water. Take one piece out of each freeway and they’re through.”

In a rented pickup, we had entered California the day before, climbing the staircase of fault blocks west of Reno that had led the Donner Party to the crest of mountains named for snow. This was among the first of a series of journeys on and near Interstate 80 that I would be making in the company of geologists, for the purpose of describing not only the rock exposed in roadcuts—and the regional geologies into which the roadcuts would serve as windows—but also the geologists themselves. The result was meant to be a sort of cross-section of the United States at about the fortieth parallel, and a picture of the science. The writing would develop as four compositions, of which this is the fourth. The element controlling them—the subject that has shaped the over-all structure—has been plate tectonics. The scientific papers that effected the plate-tectonics revolution were published from 1959 to 1968. Much of what was written there was at first widely scorned. As I started out on my transcontinental journeys, in 1978, I wanted to see how the science was settling down with its new theory, and, as a continuing result of its revelations, what revisions would occur in the consensual biography of the earth. Plenty of other matters would be discussed, but that one was paramount. The developed structure has not been linear—not a straightforward trip from New York to San Francisco on the interstate. It began in New Jersey and then leaped to Nevada, because the tectonics in New Jersey two hundred million years ago are being recapitulated by the tectonics in Nevada today. While the progress was not linear in a geographic sense, thematically it was aimed at California. In California was the prow of the North American Plate—in these latitudes, the sliding boundary. California was also among the freshest acquisitions of the continent. So radical and contemporary were the regional tectonics that the highest and the lowest points in the contiguous United States were within eighty miles of each other in California. As nowhere else along the fortieth parallel in North America, this was where the new theory was announcing its agenda.

The centerpiece of the montage is a 1988 cover showing Moores on a coastal outcrop playing a cello. Moores grew up in Arizona’s central highlands, in a community so remote and sparse that it was called a camp. A very great distance from pavement, it was far up the switchbacks of a mountain ridge and among the open mouths of small, hard-rock mines. At the age of thirteen, he learned to play the cello, and he practiced long in the afternoons. The miners, his father included, could not understand why he would want to do that. Moores has played with symphony orchestras in Davis and Sacramento. The coastal outcrop on the cover of Geology is the brecciated limestone of Petra tou Romiou, Cyprus. Moores in the field has long since overcome the most obvious drawback of a cello. He travels with an instrument handcrafted in a workshop in Maryland. Essentially, it is just like any other cello but it has no belly. Neck, pegbox, fingerboard, bridge—everything from scroll to spike fits into a slim rectangular case wired to serve as an electronic belly. This is a Sherpa’s cello, a Chomolungma cello, a base-camp viol. In Moores’ living room is a grand piano. Still on a shelf behind it are the sheet-music boxes of his children, labelled “Brian Clarinet,” “Brian Bassoon,” “Kathryn Cello,” “Geneva Piano,” and “Geneva Violin,” and three additional boxes labelled “Eldridge Cello,” “Eldridge Cello and Piano,” “Eldridge Cello Concertos and Trios.”

Judy grew up in farming country in Orange County, New York. On her California acre of the Great Valley she grows vegetables twelve months a year, and has also raised bush strawberries, grapes, blackberries, goats, pigs, chickens, pears, nectarines, plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, asparagus, ziziphus, figs, apples, persimmons, and pineapple guavas—but not so prolifically in recent years, because she has been working toward a Ph.D. in human development, and teaching in the Early Childhood Laboratory at U.C. Davis. She has worked in regional science centers since she was a teen-ager, and, with others, she founded one in Davis. School buses bring children there from sixty miles around to get their hands on spotting scopes, microscopes, oscilloscopes, and living snakes, on u-build-it skeletons, on take-apart anatomies and disassembled brains. Judy, trim and teacherly, puts her hands palms down on a table to show the interaction of lithospheric plates. Lithosphere is crustal rock and mantle rock down to a zone in the mantle that is lubricious enough to allow the plates to move. Thumbs tucked, fingers flat, the hands side by side, she presses them hard together until they buckle upward. The hands are two continents, or other landmasses, converging, colliding—making mountains. The Himalaya was made that way. Placing the hands flat again, she slowly moves them apart. These are two plates separating, one on either side of a spreading center. The Atlantic Ocean was made that way. She begins to slide one hand under the other. This is subduction. Ocean floors are consumed that way. Thumbs tucked, fingers flat, palms again side by side, she slides one hand forward, one back, the index fingers rubbing. This is the motion of a transform fault, a strike-slip fault—the San Andreas Fault. Parts of California have slid into present place that way. Convergent margins, divergent margins, transform faults: she has outlined the boundaries of the earth’s plates. There is enough complexity in tectonics to lithify the nimblest mind, but the basic mode] is that simple. Take your hands with you—she smiles—and you are ready for the mountains.

Physiographic California, for much of its length, is divided into three parts. Where Interstate 80 crosses them, from Reno to San Francisco, they make a profile that is acutely defined: the Sierra Nevada, highest mountain range in the Lower Forty-eight; the Great Central Valley, essentially at sea level and very much flatter than Iowa or Kansas, and the Coast Ranges, a marine medley, still ascending from the adjacent sea.

In this cross-section, the Coast Ranges occupy forty miles, the valley fifty miles, the mountains ninety. All of it added together is not a great distance. It is not as much as New York to Boston. It is Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. In breadth and in profile, a comparable country lies between Genoa and Zurich—the Apennines, the Po Plain, the Alps.

Bear in mind how young all this is. Until the latter part of the present geologic era, there was no Sierra Nevada—no mountain range, no rain shadow, no ten-thousand-foot wall. Big rivers ran west through the space now filled by the mountains. They crossed a plain to the ocean.

Remember about mountains: what they are made of is not what made them. With the exception of volcanoes, when mountains rise, as a result of some tectonic force, they consist of what happened to be there. If bands of phyllites and folded metasediments happen to be there, up they go as part of the mountains. If serpentinized peridotites and gold-bearing gravels happen to be there, up they go as part of the mountains. If a great granite batholith happens to be there, up it goes as part of the mountains. And while everything is going up it is being eroded as well, by water and (sometimes) ice. Cirques are cut, and U-shaped valleys, ravines, minarets. Parts tumble on one another, increasing, with each confusion, the landscape’s beauty.

All this had happened in one areal spot. All this was represented in that one roadcut. Anyone could be pardoned if, at first glance, the complete narrative seemed less than apparent. The story had repeated itself through much of the Sierra during the same band of time: other volcanoes extruding andesite and shedding mud, their remains disturbed by ice. It was a surface story, a latter-day account. The brecciated mudflows and andesite lavaflows had come to rest on rock that was older by as much as five hundred million years—rock with a deep and different story, rock that just happened to be there when the mountains rose. In the discipline of stratigraphy, gaps in time are known as unconformities. The layers of the Grand Canyon are full of such temporal gaps. Much more time is absent there than is represented. If a gap of five hundred million years were the right five hundred million years, it could erase the Grand Canyon. In eastern California, the infinitesimal space between the andesite flows and the rock on which they hardened is known as the Great Sierra Nevada Unconformity. To understand what that was and how it had come to be was to understand the relationship between just two of the parts in a millipartite structure.

Moores and I went on to California’s eastern boundary, turned around, and recrossed the Sierra, as we would do repeatedly in the coming years. Climbing the steep east face of the mountains, you see granite and more granite and andesite capping the granite. So far so comprehensible. But before you have crossed the range you have seen rock of such varied type, age, and provenance that time itself becomes nervous—Pliocene, Miocene, Eocene nonmarine, Jurassic here, Triassic there, Ypresian, Lutetian, Tithonian, Rhaetian, Messinian, Maastrichtian, Valanginian, Kimmeridgian, upper Paleozoic. The rocks seem to change as fast as the traffic. You see olivine-rich, badly deformed metamorphic rock. You see serpentine. Gabbro. One thing follows another in a manner that seems random—a collection of relics from varied ages and many ancestral landscapes, transported from far or near, set beside or upon one another, lifted en masse in fresh young mountains and exposed in roadcuts by the state. You cannot be expected, just by looking at it, to fit it all together in mobile space and sequential time, to see in the congestion within this lithic barn—this Sierra Nevada, this atticful of objects from around the Pacific world—the events and the vistas that each item represents.

I remembered the sedimentologist Karen Kleinspehn saying to me in these same mountains, “You can’t cope with this in an organized way, because the rocks aren’t organized.”

Gradually, though—outcrop to outcrop, roadcut to roadcut—Moores revived enough related scenes in the distinct origins of the random rock to frame a cohesive chronological story. That is what geologists do. “You spend a lot of time working over rocks and you have a lot of time to do nothing but think,” he said. “These mountains, for example, are Tertiary normal faulted, confusing the topography with regard to structure. They show different levels of structure in different places. To see through the topography and see how the rocks lie in three dimensions beneath the topography is the hardest thing to get across to a student.” After a mile of silence, he added cryptically, “Left-handed people do it better.”

Donner Summit, at seven thousand two hundred and thirty-nine feet, is half the height of the range. Locally, engineers found a way for the interstate which is considerably less precipitous than the trail used by the emigrants in the eighteen-forties. The place that came to be known as Donner Pass is a couple of miles south, on a relic stretch of U.S. 40. Moores and I once went over there and stood on a cliff edge, looking east. Tens of thousands of square miles of basin-and-range topography fanned out into Nevada, all of it aimed, within converging lines, at the pass. The drop to Donner Lake, more than a thousand feet below, was almost giddy. To get over the pass, everything on feet or wheels had to come up that grade. In a normal year, about seventy inches of water falls on the High Sierra, nearly all of it as snow. Seventy inches of water is roughly one and a half times what falls on New York City and twice what falls on Seattle. The snow on the Sierra Nevada can be forty feet deep. At the end of October, 1846, the Donner Party came up to this pass and were forced to retreat by a mountain of snow. The winter camp where they starved and died was by the shore of Donner Lake, in the cirque below the pass.

Moores said to notice how the mechanical lowering of a large piece of the mountains had caused varying levels of the original structure to turn up in unexpected places. To try to sense a structure, he repeated, one must develop a talent for “seeing through the topography” and into the rock on which the topography was carved. When rocks in their variety arrive in a given place, like furniture going into storage, they hold within themselves their individual histories: their dates of solidification, their environments of deposition, or their metamorphic experience, as the case may be. Their unit-to-unit relationship—their stratigraphy and other juxtapositions—pondered as a whole is structure. Structure on the move is tectonics.

Moores now called it “about as classic and neat a contact as you’ll ever see.” As cars shot past us like MIGs, he added, “Right here. Bang!” The contact was essentially vertical. It ran on up the mountainside and vanished under the trees. It could not have been more distinct had it been the line between a granite building and a brick building adjacent in a city. The granite of the batholith looked almost white beside the reddish country rock, which Moores described as the metamorphosed remains of what had once been an island arc. The granite was customary, competent—a lot of salt and less pepper. The arc rock was flaky, slaty-like aged iron in a state of ulcerated rust. In the first yards after the contact, tongues of granite reached into the country rock, preserved in the act of eating xenoliths. Within a short distance, they gave up.

When panoramic views came along, they showed the uniformity of the sixty-mile slope—the low-angle plane of the western Sierra. The great surface (the top of the trapdoor) was completed in the eye rather than the rock. It was deeply eaten out by river gorges. To the north and the south, the vistas were wide over deep valleys to tilting planar skylines. We came to Emigrant Gap, where the erosional dissection was particularly deep. Nineteen miles from Donner Pass, the scene demonstrated with emphasis that once emigrants were across the summit they were scarcely free of trouble. From Emigrant Gap into Bear Valley they lowered their wagons on ropes. We looked into the valley, where an alpine meadow was flanked with incense cedars. Above it to the north, under the smoothly sloping skyline, were west-dipping sediments that Moores described as mudflow breccias over Paleozoic sandstones. A deep gorge cut through this ridge. It contained the Yuba River, where the Yuba had captured the Bear. The two rivers, each eroding headward from opposite sides of the ridge, had struggled toward each other until the divide between them broke down, and the Bear, giving up its direction of flow, joined the Yuba and went the other way. To the northeast, under high white peaks, was a lake gouged in granite by an alpine glacier, which had left its moraines on the volcanic muds among the sharp shards and round pebbles that had caused Deffeyes to throw in his towel. Rocks between us and that lake, Moores said, were “lower Paleozoic quartz-rich sediments metamorphosed and folded at least twice.” And the rocks in the peaks above the lake were remains of a Jurassic island arc.

Sonomia was actually the second terrane to attach itself to the western edge of ancestral North America. The first had arrived in latest Devonian time. It had thrust itself almost to Utah. At this latitude, a third terrane would follow Sonomia in the Mesozoic, smashing into it with crumpling, mountain-building effects that would propagate eastward through the whole of Sonomia, metamorphosing its sediments—turning siltstones into slates, sandstones into quartzites—and folding them at least twice: the multicolored drape folds we had seen beside the road. This was the country rock the batholith intruded.

A granite batholith will not appear just anywhere. You will wait an eternity for one to develop under Kansas. A great tectonic event must come first. Then granite—or, rather, the magma that will cool and produce granite—comes in beneath the mountains. Volcanoes appear at the surface. Lava flows.

After the batholith came nothing during the many millions of years of the Great Sierra Nevada Unconformity. At any rate, nothing from those years was left for us to see. The rock record jumps from the batholith to the andesite flows of recent time, patches of which Moores pointed out from the lookoff at Emigrant Gap. A few million years ago, when lands to the east of us began to stretch apart and break into blocks, producing the province of the Basin and Range, the Sierra Nevada was the westernmost block to rise, lifting within itself the folds and faults of the Mesozoic dockings, the roots of mountains that had long since disappeared. The chronology at Emigrant Gap ends with the signatures of glaciation on the new mountains—the bestrewn boulders and dumped tills, the horns, the arêtes, the deep wide U of the Bear Valley.

Since Moores had learned geology in the late nineteen-fifties and early nineteen-sixties, when the theory of plate tectonics was still in a formative unheralded stage, I asked him what he had been taught. How had his teachers at the California Institute of Technology explained—in what is now known as “the old geology”—the building of mountains, the rise of volcanoes, the construction of North America west of Salt Lake?

Geologists used to accept the idea that the earth’s skin contracted, he said—“shrivelled up like the skin of an apple” was the favorite simile—and the wrinkles were mountains. This was said to have happened in different places at differing times, and the wrinkling process was known as an orogeny. The rise of the mountains in Utah and Nevada, where that first exotic terrane came in, was known in the old geology as the Antler Orogeny. The next wrinkling of the regional skin was the Sonoma Orogeny. The Appalachians were built in the Avalonian, Taconic, Acadian, and Alleghenian Orogenies. The Rockies were built in the Laramide Orogeny. Mountain-building mechanisms have been restyled, but these terms for them survive.

If wrinkling was the force that lifted mountain belts, it did not explain their great volume. In the second half of the nineteenth century, James Hall, the state geologist of New York, theoretically resolved that question when he conceived of what came to be called the geosynclinal cycle, and so put in place the geology that prevailed until 1968, when plate tectonics was nailed to the church door. Since mountain belts tended to rise at the margins of continents and to contain, among other things, folded marine sediments and intruding batholiths, Hall imagined a long wide seafloor trough, a deep dimple, in which vast amounts of sediment would pile up and where magmas would intrude. After a sufficient amount of material had collected, it was ready to rise, to wrinkle as mountains. Wary of the apple-skin hypothesis, many geologists preferred to think that as a geosyncline gained weight it would press down on the mantle until its volume was so great that it would rebound isostatically, like a huge buoyant log coming up from underwater. Wary of isostasy as well, many more geologists would not venture further than to say (indisputably) that “earth forces” or “orogenic forces” had lifted th