WINTER MOUNTAINEERING 61 



in Spruce Gulch. If I don't strike it by spring 

 I'm off for Alaska. Stirring reports from there. " 



It was a good place to look around. Several 

 towering peaks were strangely near. A number 

 of summits reached up fourteen thousand feet into 

 the blue sky. Colorado is crowded with a vast 

 and wondrous array of mountains. Many of these 

 are united by narrow plateaus that are savagely 

 side-cut with deep canons. Each time I gained a 

 commanding height I looked again and again, 

 awed by the immensity of it all, at peaks and 

 canons with their broken strata of snow. 



This outing, as usual, was all too short. Ten 

 of its fourteen days were sunny and calm. Through 

 two days the wind roared. Two other days were 

 filled with snowstorms. Each day I went to some 

 new scene. I climbed one fourteen-thousand-foot 

 peak. I occupied one camp three nights, but on 

 each of the other nights I had a new camp. Most 

 of the nights were filled with stars, and always 

 there was the blazing camp-fire. On my way home 

 I met a man who had heard of my winter camping 

 habits. After questioning me concerning the ob- 

 jects of interest seen, he asked: 



"Is this a good time of year for a vacation ?" 



I replied: 



"A good time for a vacation is whenever you 

 can spare the time, and the very best time for a 

 vacation in the mountains is when you can stay 

 the longest." 



