The Mountaineer 61 
just a fleecy mass below us, lying so quiet that it seemed that 
the wind above held them down. Only the higher peaks were 
visible. 
The rocks began rolling and we thought a goat-herd was 
above and that we might see them. The wind, biting cold and 
blowing a gale, made climbing over the pumice and loose rock 
slow and tedious. Before this, had found snow, but on this 
trip, both up and down, took not a step except on ice or rock. 
We tried going up the ice along the boot leg but the wind 
blew the rocks loose to such an extent that we were forced 
west to the top of the ridge on the leg of the boot. We staid 
with the ridge till it met the glare ice six hundred feet from 
the top. Now our troubles were on. [ was wearing the calks 
and alpinestock, both dull, and the same clothing as on the 
Chelan trip and had about twenty-five pounds of junk in the 
coat pockets (always enough to set up camp for one night), 
so much that it was balloon shaped and so could not button it. 
The wind now would discount a Kansas cyclone. While cut- 
ting steps for the first 300 feet, it would pick up the coat from 
the back and flop it over my head, easily. (Have forgotten the 
list cf adjectives used). 
At the end of the first 300 feet, we ducked behind a small 
cliff and tried to warm up. “Twas no use; the wind found 
us, so we started on and up, now and then cutting a step. At 
1:20 p. m. we dropped over the chimney rock into the crater, 
chilled through and through, with the four fingers of my right 
hand frozen through heavy gloves. We warmed up some and 
then went over to the box, Williams fishing it out from under 
the rocks. We went down under the knoll. He wrote legibly, 
I didn’t. 
Climbing this time was like getting into trouble, easy going 
in but hard to get out. Some one had said that no person 
could climb from Black Butte this vear so, kid like, we looked 
it up, going down the east side. It was true. Nothing but a 
flving machine could pass the crevasses surrounding it on 
three sides. “Twas the worst svstem ever caught in. On the 
east side, the ice was concave in places which helped some 
from just common glare ice. Farther down, for a time it 
looked as though we were stuck and would fail to get down, 
but by crossing sundry narrow crevasses at favorable places, 
we were clear of them and far below Black Butte. 
