The Main Players

 

Peter and Lucy Tremayne live in Nevada at their mountain home, situated at 6,000' between Reno and Lake Tahoe. Mal Hill lives in Ballina, Australia and has been a climbing buddy of Peter's since 1983 when they met on a trek around the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. Mike Fox, an Aussie climbing mate of Mal Hill, lives in Brisbane, Australia and hiked the John Muir Trail with Peter in 2007, 2011, 2012 and 2016.

Often called the Climbing Dudes from Downunder, Mal Hill and Peter have been climbing and rambling in the Sierra Nevada since the mid 1980's. This name originated from a camcorder audio byte made by Lucy during a difficult alpine ascent of Mount Jefferson, Oregon in 1997. As Peter and Mal, then in their late 50's, staggered up the steep snow with heavy packs, Lucy breaks into song with "there go the mountain goats from downunder".

And, a few days earlier while climbing at Smith Rocks, Oregon on a particularly steep section, a local climbing guide in his 30's [convinced his climbing days were nearly over] incredulously posed the question "how old are you two dudes?" Mal's only response was to state our need to descend soon because Matron expected us back in the Home by 4 p.m. During the debrief of the Jefferson climb, knocking back a few beers, and Mal recovering from a nasty facial wound from rockfall below the summit, we began referring to ourselves as the climbing dudes from downunder.

 

Hiking the JMT in recent years, there's been a passing parade of exceptional individuals who continue to enrich my experience in the Sierra Nevada. Like me, some have become repeat offenders on the Trail (Jeanne from Hawaii); others appear out of the blue on a regular basis [Johannes from Philadelphia and Big Rob from Boston]; then there's the local Reno reliables like Marv Spillman, Bob Williams and Carla Westerdale.

Thrown into this mix have been the German girls who've joined my rag-rag band along various section of the Trail. In 2012 there was Yvonne and Angela [Ohlemacher], then in 2013 there was Angela [Herold] from Munich. I fully expect some of these wonderful folks to show up again for another fun trip down the JMT with the Tinman.

Peter Tremayne, Reno 2020