Opening Lines

One of many trip reports by Alan Silverstein.
Last update: February 2, 2009

From:  ajs@fc.hp.com (Alan Silverstein)
Date:  24 Sep 1998 19:00:14 GMT
Subject:  Re: 100 Best books readers' poll:  update
Newsgroups:  hp.misc

> BTW, if you (everyone reading this message) were writing a book, what
> would be YOUR opening sentence?

It would depend on the book!

You know, I've written a lot of "trip reports" about my outdoor
adventures; over 130 since 1984...

I usually try to open these reports with interesting sentences.  Here
are some of my favorites, in random order (alphabetical by filenames).
Fun fun, I've never looked at them this way before...

By night I return to Quandary Peak...
One summer day we walked across Rocky Mountain National Park in opposite directions...
The National Park is a quiet but intense place as winter draws near...
One fine Sunday last summer I very nearly snapped my thread, leaving the rest to unravel into nothingness...
After looking forward to it for a year, I spent a night on top of Castle Peak, 14265', the highest peak in the Elk Range, near Aspen...
This weekend we placed a bronze memorial plaque on top of Challenger Point, Colorado, 14080+'...
Once again, just for fun, I will attempt to convey in mere words an overwhelmingly rich experience impossible to capture fully even in memories or photographs...
Last night I comet-chased past 1 am...
It's a fun peak if you're used to exposure...
Crosier is positioned for a gorgeous view of Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, and it is low enough to make a fine spring or fall expedition...
When I pulled into the Taylor Ranch on Saturday evening, it had just finished raining, all the dirt roads were muddy, the skies were overcast, and it was pretty cold...
Last weekend I took my daughter Megan on her first-ever backpacking trip...
Death Valley is one of my favorite places on earth...
There are over 100,000 people in the Fort Collins area, but only five of us took the trouble to be on top of Horsetooth Mountain (7255') last night for comet and eclipse viewing...
This was my last Colorado Fourteener! ...
The weather looked so crummy I nearly gave up on climbing...
"How to spend an extraordinary half day; or, my third trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and once again I didn't even spend the night." ...
One weekend I walked 30 miles around Horsetooth Reservoir with a "short side trip" up Horsetooth Mountain...
Sure I knew how to canoe -- I thought...
"Clouded out on the Big Island," or, "I traveled 3300 miles to see this lousy eclipse and all I saw was this great T shirt." ...
It was another summer weekend of -- monsoon weather, too much stress, too little sleep...
A short report about asteroid dust, sand dune slogging, and my first Fourteener past age 40...
If you're not reading all these reports, I don't blame you...
As much as Lake Powell is a fine locale to absorb nature, Lake McConaughy is an equally nice place to party...
I spent a week visiting Heaven aboard the Houseboat to Hell...
If Little Bear was awful the first time, it was even worse the second, to my surprise...
I finally stumbled across an opportunity to trust my life to a rope...
Recently I completed 17 years as a Hewlett-Packard software engineer followed by a half-year sabbatical, a non-compelling leave of absence... [Followed by 22,000 more words...]
Ridiculously late on a Saturday night, a friend and I started up the west side of Milner Mountain to spend the night on top...
Where better to spend the Fourth of July than on the highest point in Colorado? ...
After my misadventures Saturday and Sunday, I had real doubts about climbing another mountain on this trip...
Mount Whitney is the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states...
This was the day I accidentally nearly killed someone...
A visit to an unlucky spot... It was hit by a rare mountain tornado, and within ten years it was also burned by a forest fire...
Three early-season local adventures, including a very rare sighting of a mountain lion...
One Saturday, three peaks, one sunrise, an early start, but climb cut short by weather...
After three days of HP business meetings in Cupertino I caught a plane Wednesday evening to Las Vegas...
This was a four-day, three-night foray into a wilderness area I had long wanted to explore...