Honors to Peary 



55 



loyal supporters, Barrille and Dokkin. 

 Barrille was chosen as my sole companion 

 for the upper work, while Dokkin was 

 instructed to place a line of caches along 

 the glacier. It was now September ii, 

 winter was advancing rapidly ; snow cov- 

 ered all the foothills down to 2,000 feet, 

 and frosty storms must be expected. We 

 had explored the first glacier, which was 

 our main mission at this time, but the 

 route to the summit was as uncertain and 

 seemingly impossible as ever, but on the 

 morrow we resolved to make a vigorous 

 trial. 



Our silk tent was pitched on the glacial 

 ice. We ate pemmican, drank tea, and 

 put down hard bread while a strong wind 

 was rushing down from the gulches of 

 the big mountain. Huge black clouds 

 were so low that we could almost touch 

 them, and through them rushed soul- 

 stirring avalanches; great boulders of 

 rock and ice, followed by a hiss, a gust 

 of wind, tons of snow, explosive noises, 

 and the entire range quivered as from an 

 earthquake. The noise of the cracking 

 glaciers increased with the advancing 

 night, but the avalanches decreased, the 

 clouds brightened, and at dawn the giant 

 slopes of Mount McKinley loomed up in 

 the blue twilight, sharp, steep, pointing 

 heavenward so far up — so inconceivably 

 high that it took our breath as we tried 

 to estimate the task of climbing. I never 

 felt so small and the sky never seemed so 

 distant. We were shivering as we melted 

 ice for tea and ate pemmican, but as the 

 sun burst over the icy spires, and a mil- 

 lion reflecting surfaces threw piercing 

 rays from slope to slope we warmed up 

 to our enterprise. 



The bright blaze of this sunburst re- 

 mained with us long enough to get 

 started into a maze of blue crags and 

 gloomy granite cliffs. We were aiming 

 to get to the north arete for our day's 

 task. Cloud after cloud drifted on us, 

 and each cloud was preceded and fol- 

 lowed by a brief blast of icy wind. Hour 

 after hour we dug our feet and hands 

 into the snow in desperate effort to get 

 from crevass to crevass, from grottos 



to cliffs, always gaining a little altitude 

 and rising farther and farther into 

 cloudland, with its awful cold and stormy 

 agitation. The day was a long one. 

 Without food or drink, with little rest or 

 relief from awe-inspiring excitement, we 

 ascended until about 7 p. m. Here, on a 

 cornice, we built a snow house and 

 within we found rest and comfort, amid 

 cloud and storms. 



The day after the sun again broke 

 through the clouds of snow for a few 

 brief moments. We noted the bright, 

 snowy slopes of Mount McKinley with 

 less fear and more courage. We were 

 at 12,000 feet, and but one difficult cliff 

 barred the way to the summit, and we re- 

 solved at all hazards to find a way around 

 this barrier. The way proved, however, 

 a long one. For two days we chopped 

 steps, dragged each other over dangerous 

 ice cornices and slippery rocks, and as we 

 had conquered this impediment we rose 

 out of the cloud world of storm into a 

 region of silence and serenity. Above 

 were the easy slopes of the top ; below, a 

 chaos of cliff and spire, a maze of crags 

 and grottos, with clouds wildly sweeping 

 the slopes. 



We had now risen to nearly 15,000 

 feet before we could assure ourselves that 

 an ascent along our chosen route was pos- 

 sible. We were chilled to the marrow 

 and our forces were about exhausted. 

 Would we push on to the summit or 

 return? We agreed to push to the sum- 

 mit. It was our sixth day on the climb, 

 and we estimated that another long day 

 would place us on the summit. But now 

 our legs were heavy, our packs like lead ; 

 we were heaving for breath, with icicles 

 forming on our mustaches and hearts 

 thumping like a gas engine in trouble. 

 Two thousand feet was all we could put 

 to our credit on the seventh day ; but, 

 starting early in the morning of the i6th 

 of September, we began the last weary 

 climb. It was hard to lift one foot above 

 another ; but the slope was easy, and with 

 much forced effort we made a few hun- 

 dred paces, leaned over our ice axes, 

 puffed a few minutes, and then went 



