It's cool outside. Reading this story of a disappeared mountain ranger.

"It wasn’t until the summer of 2001, five years after he disappeared, that Randy’s remains were finally discovered."

~ Eric Blehm

"Climbing Mt. Morgenson in Sequoia and Kings Canyon"

https://www.backpacker.com/stories/climbing-mt-morgenson-ranger-randy-morgenson-disappearance/

"The following morning and 6,000 vertical feet later, we topped Sheppard Pass, and were welcomed to the high country with a squall. 'Smell that?' Rick said, inhaling deeply, as we pulled ponchos from our packs. 'Rain on granite, nothing like it.' And he was off, hustling across the exposed plateau. Thunder growled. Lightning flashed. 'We should spread out a couple hundred feet,' he yelled back to me. 'If the lightning gets much closer, get up against a rock and sit on your sleeping pad with your knees pulled up to your chest.' He took a few more steps. 'Hey, not to freak you out,” he continued, 'but if I die up here, I’m good with that.' He inhaled deeply again, and I gave him a thumbs-up."

~ Eric Blehm 

Climbing Mt. Morgenson in Sequoia and Kings Canyon

https://www.backpacker.com/stories/climbing-mt-morgenson-ranger-randy-morgenson-disappearance/

"Looking around for a place to recline and close my eyes, I smelled a distinctly sweet and delicate scent and found myself in a garden of strikingly blue polemonium, which had been Randy’s favorite Sierra flower. I’d only happened upon the high-altitude gem a handful of times, in little more than withered clumps, because I tended to visit the high country in September and October, past the flower’s prime. I had hoped I might see it on this trip, and recalled the story from Randy’s childhood, when he’d climbed a Yosemite peak with his father, Dana, and first discovered polemonium eximium. Dana told Randy that the common name is sky pilot because it is found only on or near the tops of the highest peaks. 'The name,' said Dana, 'means ‘one who leads others to heaven.’' Randy reached to pluck a tiny bouquet for his mother, but his father had stopped him, explaining how the delicate flowers had fought hard to survive in such a harsh environment. 'Wouldn’t it be nice to leave these alone?' He explained in terms an 8-year-old might grasp: 'If climbers before us had picked these flowers, we wouldn’t now be enjoying their beauty.'”

~ Eric Blehm

"Climbing Mt. Morgenson in Sequoia and Kings Canyon"

https://www.backpacker.com/stories/climbing-mt-morgenson-ranger-randy-morgenson-disappearance/

"I don’t wish man in control of the universe, he’d written in 1971 while atop Mt. Solomons. I wish nature in control, and man playing only just a role as one of its inhabitants. I want every blade of grass standing naturally, as it was when pushed through the soil with spring vigor. I want the stones and gravel left in the autumn as spring meltwater left them. Only these natural places, apart from my tracks, give me joy, exhilaration, understanding. What humanity I have has come from my relations with these mountains."

~ Randy Morgenson qtd. by Eric Blehm

Climbing Mt. Morgenson in Sequoia and Kings Canyon

https://www.backpacker.com/stories/climbing-mt-morgenson-ranger-randy-morgenson-disappearance/