trips to the summit before offering my services 

 as guide. I had made climbs in every kind of 

 weather to familiarize myself thoroughly with 

 the way to the top. These trips — always 

 alone — were first made on clear days, then on 

 stormy ones, and finally at night. When I was 

 satisfied that I could find the trail under the 

 worst conditions, endurance tests were made. 

 One of these consisted in making a quick round 

 trip, then, after only a few minutes' rest, 

 shouldering thirty or forty pounds of supplies 

 and hastening to the rescue of an imaginary 

 climber ill on the summit. 



Besides two seasons of this preliminary ex- 

 perience, the rocks, glacial records, birds, trees, 

 and flowers along the trail were studied, other 

 peaks climbed, and books concerning moun- 

 tain-climbing diligently read. But long before 

 my two hundred and fifty-seven guiding trips 

 were completed, I found myself ignorant of one 

 of the most important factors in guiding, and 

 perhaps, too, in life, — and that is human 

 nature. 



Several climbs had been made simply to learn 



4 



