193 



the bead of the gulch, and saw, far across, a curions sink -like amphithea- 

 ter, the object of our journey, looming up in terrible blackness before 

 him. He saw at a glance that from our present position the peak must 

 be ascended in one day, from our present camp, all on foot. The moun 

 tain had to be climbed, and the only easier ascent was from the north. 

 Bat to get to that side of the mountain necessitated a circuitous journey 

 of several days around the portion of the mountains jutting out to the 

 west. 



On his return to camp in the evening he reported the result of his 

 deliberations to the rest of the party, and it was concluded to make the 

 ascent from our present camp. We all knew well that the winter-storms 

 would soon commence, and we could ill aftbrd to lose the time necessary 

 to go around to the north side of the mountain. The present camp is 

 marked on the map as camp 45. 



ASCENT OF MOUNT SNEFFELs. 



The next morning we provided ourselves with lunches, as was 

 our custom, and the three of us set out on foot at six o'clock, with 

 our note-books and iustrumeuts. The first portion of the climb 

 to the pass above mentioned was in a northeasterly direction from 

 camp. After crossing the portion of debris already described we 

 came again to timber, then to soil covered with very short grass 

 but devoid of other vegetation. After leaving the timber we could see 

 about us, and a dreary sight we saw. ^Near us was nothing but these 

 great angular fragments of trachytic rock, which, in the distance, faded 

 to a dull, dreary, gray tint. In some places these slides formed long, 

 regular, slightly-curved lines ; in others the stone appeared in swells 

 like sand-dunes. The head of the canon was amphitheatrical in ibrm, 

 like almost all in lava regions. On the east side we noticed particularly 

 a subamphitheater, which, being composed of nothing but the loose 

 debris, variegated by neither shrub nor blade of grass nor even barren 

 soil, nor by any change of color in the rock, presented one of the most 

 desolate sights that meets the eye of the mountain-climber. The weird 

 stillness of high altitudes only served to heighten the appearance of 

 desolation about us, and gave one the idea that all nature was dead. 

 Passing from the small area of soil over which we traveled after leav- 

 ing the timber, we came again to the loose debris. Take note of that 

 little patch of soil, for we may not step on soil again till we return at 

 night from our tiresome climb. We now had to walk over the loose 

 bowlders, stepping from stone to stone. This was very tiresome, as we 

 could not relax our attention for a single moment for fear we should step 

 on a balanced stone, and fall or slip on some smooth surface. Toward 

 the last, the ascent became very steep, and we had to climb with great 

 care. The last few hundred feet was just about as steep as loose rock 

 would lie. We thought nothing of this, however, as we were fresh, and 

 knew, besides, that this was the easiest part3 of our day's journey. We 

 reached the pass at last, and as we had been climbing till then in the 

 shadow we were glad to see the sun rising clear and beautiful. Every- 

 thing seemed to conspire to make a beautiful day, and we lacked only 

 time to let our imaginations run on and make a sublimely-romantic pic- 

 ture of sunrise at a high elevation. The claw-marks on the rocks, on 

 either side of the summit of the pass, showed that the grizzly had been 

 before us. We gave up all hope of ever beating the bear climbing 

 mountains. Several times before, when, after terribly difficult and 

 dangerous climbs, we had secretly chuckled over our having outwitted 



