The Mountaineer 49 
ASCENT OF MOUNT MEANY, AUGUST 13, 1913 
J. HARRY WEER 
Ca O event of the 1913 outing was more pleasing and gratifying 
Sfalt| than the ascent of Mount Meany on August 13th, made 
particularly interesting by the presence of Prof. Edmond S. 
Meany, in whose honor the spire-tipped peak was named 
by the Press party in 1890. 
The party, twenty in all, left Main Camp in Elwha Basin at 8:30 
a. m., traversing first the snow-finger in Marion Pass, to an elevation 
about 500 feet higher than Main Camp, then, turning abruptly to the 
right, assailed the steep slope leading up toward the peak. 
Very little heather or grass was encountered and it was soon 
evident that lovers of “rock work” in mountain climbing would here 
have an opportunity to revel in that variety of the sport. 
Despite the steepness of the ascent, the rock formation was all 
that could be desired in furnishing excellent footing and hand holds 
for the upward scramble. 
Soon after leaving Main Camp the sky became overeast, but the 
clouds were not low enough to rob the climbers of grand views of the 
magnificent ranges of mountains which guard so well the Elwha River 
in its impetuous dash to the sea. 
With increasing steepness the climb proceeded, while the steady 
ascent of the party and an equally steady lowering of the clouds 
brought them finally to the same level shortly before noon. 
About sixty feet below the peak, the party reached the symmetrical 
pyramid which comprises the tip of the mountain and were here con- 
fronted by a rock wall, thirty feet high and apparently perpendicular. 
Fortunately a few small niches, crevices, and projections furnished 
the means whereby several members clung to the wall at varying 
heights to support a life line stretched as a precautionary measure 
across the face of the wall at an angle of forty-five degrees. 
Most of the party being experienced mountain climbers, the life 
line was of little use except in inspiring confidence, and one at a time 
the climbers made their way cautiously up the cliff, welcoming the 
chance to surmount such an obstacle. 
A short scramble over a tumbled mass of huge, keen-edged rocks 
brought the entire party to the peak, with room so limited as to barely 
accommodate even such a small number. And, scorning the closely 
pressing envelope of clouds, a happy group it was—happy over the 
safe ascent of a mountain so precipitous—happy in the way realized 
