34 The Mountaineer 
of tremendous cubical rock bastions, pierced by occasional 
gaps, Where erosion of the rotten rock by frost and elacial 
action has left rough, narrow, sharp V-shaped chimneys. The 
first gap had seemed impracticable to Mr. Ellis last vear, and 
at first so impressed us; but there were three of us, we had a 
200d rope, and, avoiding the snow-filled depression, into which 
broken rock has a habit of falling, and taking to the side roeks 
at the left, a half hour’s delicate and careful work—in which 
our Recording Angel, a novice in Alpine work, showed splendid: 
nerve 
placed us at the top of the bastion, whence a short 
scramble brought us to the top of the shattered rock cone 
which forms the summit. 
Our calculations this year dropped the summit to about 
10,400 to 10,600 feet 
however, well up to that of the highest northern Selkirks; and 
subject to later refinement—an elevation, 
the glorious view afforded of the Columbia valley to the east, 
with the Rockies rising beyond, and of our neighboring erest 
chain of Selkirks to the west, we can never forget. 
Our North Fork plans were now consummated, and our 
next base of operations was Earl Grey Pass, at the head of the 
main Toby Creek, as described in last year’s Mountaineer. This 
is a pass leading over into the west Kootenay region, and was 
first crossed by a Mr. Wells, of Boston. 
A day and a half’s packing from the North Fork camp 
landed us there ready for business, camped in a little park 
reminiscent of Rainier, surrounded by erythronium and giant 
anemones, the dying gasp of the expiring timber still leaving, 
in addition to the Lyell’s larches, fir balsam for beds. About 
us was one of the noblest panoramas conceivable, suggestive, 
as I said last year, of the view from the Gorner Grat. 
The sharp, high, apparently inaccessible peak pictured in 
plate III last year, lying south of the Pass, had haunted my 
dreams during the winter. I knew that it had three apparently 
impossible sides. The fourth, lying in back, I had never seen, 
but | had faith that it would prove feasible. So on the promis- 
ing morning of July 18, we started out to circumvent the moun- 
tain and see whether I was correct. The party consisted of 
the Emersons, Mr. Ellis, who had now rejoined us, and myself. 
We dropped from the Pass, which is at a level of about 7400 
feet, to the Toby Glacier, which hes at the head of Toby Creek 
and is its source, and traveled the long gradually rising curve 
