FIRST SUCCESSFUL ASCENT, 1870 



more abrupt depression or gap than that separating 

 Crater and Success peaks. Like the latter, too, it is 

 a sharp, narrow ridge springing out from the main 

 mountain, and swept bare of snow on its summit by 

 the wind. The weather was still too threatening, the 

 glimpses of the sun and sky through the thick, flying 

 scud were too few and fugitive, to warrant us in visiting 

 this peak, which we named Peak Takhoma, to perpetu- 

 ate the Indian name of the mountain. 



Our route back was the same as on the ascent. At 

 the steepest and most perilous point in descending the 

 steep gutter where we had been forced to cut steps in 

 the ice, we fastened one end of the rope as securely as 

 possible to a projecting rock, and lowered ourselves 

 down by it as far as it reached, thereby passing the 

 place with comparative safety. We were forced to 

 abandon the rope here, having no means of unfastening 

 it from the rock above. We reached the foot of the 

 rocky ledge or ridge, where the real difficulties and 

 dangers of the ascent commenced, at 1.30 P.M., four 

 and a half hours after leaving the crater. We had been 

 seven and a half hours in ascending from this point to 

 the summit of Peak Success, and in both cases we 

 toiled hard and lost no time. 



We now struck out rapidly and joyfully for camp. 

 When nearly there Van Trump, in attempting to 

 descend a snowbank without his creepers, which he 

 had taken off for greater ease in walking, fell, shot like 

 lightning forty feet down the steep incline, and struck 

 among some loose rocks at its foot with such force as 

 to rebound several feet into the air ; his face and hands 

 were badly skinned, and he received some severe 

 bruises and a deep, wide gash upon his thigh. Fortu- 

 nately the camp was not far distant, and thither 

 with great pain and very slowly he managed to hobble. 

 Once there I soon started a blazing fire, made coffee, 

 and roasted choice morsels of a marmot, Sluiskin hav- 

 ing killed and dressed four of these animals during 



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