Pinchot Pass A True Story of Friendship and Survival in the High Sierra

There are places on this earth that mark you forever. For me, that place is Pinchot Pass.

It's not the tallest peak in the Sierra Nevada, nor the most treacherous trail. But for me, it's where everything changed—where a life on the edge of adulthood was almost lost if not for a friend who changed my fate.

On August 7, 1974, just days before my 18th birthday, I had a backpacking fall that should have ended my life.
What follows is a story written in snowy pain, silence, and courage. It's the story of a shattered leg, fading daylight, and a friendship so fierce that it held my life together when my own strength ran out.

This also is a story about what happens next— of being carried, being chosen, being saved, and being rebuilt. And it's about how some people, quietly, without fanfare, become heroes.

If you've ever asked yourself how much one moment can change a life… this is my answer.
Welcome to Pinchot Pass.

—Bob Van Zant

Bob Van Zant is a survivor, storyteller, and seeker of meaning forged in the high wilderness. At 17, he endured a catastrophic injury while hiking Pinchot Pass on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada — an experience that became the foundation of his resilience, perspective, and voice.

Decades later, Bob shares his journey not as a tale of trauma but as a testament to the power of friendship, instinct, and the quiet strength we discover only in our darkest hours.

That strength has carried him through a second life-altering event, that of surviving the double diagnosis of bladder and prostate cancer.

These days, Bob continues to live fully – enjoying the outdoors, writing, coding, gardening, learning – and encouraging others to find meaning in the scars they carry.

Award winning journalist.