Good evening. Welcome to the Just Sleep podcast. I'm Tasia, your host.

Every week, I will read you an old story to help you relax of the stressful day behind you and drift off to sleep.

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Tonight, I will pay another visit to Yosemite by John Mior.

So lie down, close your eyes, and let me read you a story.

The South Dome

With the exception of a few spires and pinnacles,

the South Dome is the only rock about the valley

that is strictly inaccessible without artificial means,

and its inaccessibility is expressed in severe terms.

Nevertheless, many a mountaineer, gazing admiringly, tried hard to invent a way to the top of its noble crown, all in vain.

Until in the year 1875, George Anderson, an indomitable Scotchman, undertook the adventure.

The side-facing Tenaya Canyon is an absolutely vertical precipice from the summit to a depth of about 1,600 feet, and on the opposite

side it is nearly vertical for about as great a depth. The southwest side presents a very steep

and finely drawn curve from the top down a thousand feet or more. While on the northeast, where it is united with the clouds rest ridge,

one may easily reach a point called the saddle, about 700 feet below the summit.

From the saddle, the dome rises in a graceful curve,

a few degrees too steep for unaided climbing, besides being defended by overleaning

ends of the concentric dome layers of the granite. A year or two before Anderson gained the summit,

...