A NEAK VIEW OF THE HIGH SIEEBA 53 



eluded to make an excursion in the mean time to 

 the untouched summit of Ritter. 



It was now about the middle of October, the 

 springtime of snow- flowers. The first winter-clouds 

 had already bloomed, and the peaks were strewn 

 with fresh crystals, without, however, affecting the 

 climbing to any dangerous extent. And as the 

 weather was still profoundly calm, and the distance 

 to the foot of the mountain only a little more than 

 a day, I felt that I was running no great risk of 

 being storm-bound. 



Mount Ritter is king of the mountains of the 

 middle portion of the High Sierra, as Shasta of the 

 north and Whitney of the south sections. More 

 over, as far as I know, it had never been climbed. 

 I had explored the adjacent wilderness summer after 

 summer, but my studies thus far had never drawn 

 me to the top of it. Its height above sea-level is 

 about 13,300 feet, and it is fenced round by steeply 

 inclined glaciers, and canons of tremendous depth 

 and ruggedness, which render it almost inaccessi 

 ble. But difficulties of this kind only exhilarate the 

 mountaineer. 



Next morning, the artists went heartily to their 

 work and I to mine. Former experiences had given 

 good reason to know that passionate storms, invisi 

 ble as yet, might be brooding in the calm sun- 

 gold ; therefore, before bidding farewell, I warned 

 the artists not to be alarmed should I fail to appear 

 before a week or ten days, and advised them, in 

 case a snow-storm should set in, to keep up big 

 fires and shelter themselves as best they could, and 



