Desolation Wilderness and the South Lake Tahoe Basin

Jeffrey P. Schaffer made his first backpacking trip in a 1962 traverse of the Grand Canyon, at age 19. The following year the climbing frenzy seized him, which lasted until about 1972, some 200 roped ascents later. In that year he began working on his first book for Wilderness Press, The Pacific Crest Trail. Between then and the late 1980s, he was the sole or principal author of 12 guidebooks, and he had mapped about 4,000 miles of trail for his books and topographic maps. Innumerable observations while hiking made him question conventional geological wisdom on the origin of mountain ranges, which led him to write a lengthy book on the origin of the Sierra Nevada landscapes, particularly Yosemite Valley. At the start of the millennium he was teaching geology and geography at Napa Valley College, introducing students to the Sierra Nevada and other lands. Wilderness Press books authored or coauthored by Jeff include Hiker’s Guide to the High Sierra: Yosemite and Tuolumne Meadows, Pacific Crest Trail: Southern California, Pacific Crest Trail: Northern California, The Pacific Crest Trail, Vol. 2: Oregon and Washington, Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity, Yosemite National Park, Desolation Wilderness and the South Lake Tahoe Basin, The Tahoe Sierra, Hiking the Big Sur Country: The Ventana Wilderness, and The Geomorphic Evolution of the Yosemite Valley and Sierra Nevada Landscapes.