4-02 



The National Geographic Magazine 



has ever been reached. John Bremner, 

 who was a prospector and a man of im- 

 agination, reports that he got to within 

 a mile of the top. It is probably well 

 that he did not attempt the last mile. 

 A report is current in the Copper Valley 

 that some years ago two miners at- 

 tempted to reach the crest on snow- 

 shoes, but, after traveling the greater 

 part of the day and finding the summit 

 still distant, wisely decided to return. 



If you interview the Copper River 

 native about Mount Wrangell you will 

 find him reticent ; but if you finally win 

 his confidence and gratitude by a square 

 meal and a pipeful of tobacco without 

 demanding some service in return, he 

 may reward you by telling you in com- 

 pact but fragmental English the native 

 legend of the tragedy of the mountain. 

 ' ' Long time ago two Siwash go look 

 see ; mountain him smoke. One Si- 

 wash come back. Hiyu (much) smoke. 

 No good." As he tells you he squats 

 on his haunches in the door of your 

 tent, fingers all of your personal be- 

 longings, and reeks with the accumu- 

 lated odors of generations of unwashed 

 fish-eating ancestors. 



You are tempted to wish that more 

 Si washes had gone to the "Mountain 

 that Smokes. " It is an unworthy wish. 

 The native is but a brown child of the 

 wilderness, curious, uncontrolled, timid, 

 uncomprehending. The white invader 

 is feared for his numbers, his energy, 

 and his ability, but he is past under- 

 standing. His restless, all-sacrificing 

 search for gold or copper or other use- 

 less stuff, his abundance of all the 

 greatly desired things — clothing, food, 

 guns, tobacco — which come off the great 

 water in unlimited quantities, but are 

 dispensed to the needy Siwash most 

 grudgingly ; his curious doctrines about 

 right and wrong, and property and 

 work, doctrines which he seems to ex- 

 pect the native to observe, but which 

 he himself so often ignores — altogether 

 the white man is quite beyond native 

 comprehension. 



FEASIBLE ROUTES FOR THE ASCENT 

 OPMT WRANGELL AND THE HIGHER 

 PEAKS 



But, in spite of the native's fear of 

 it, the ' ' Mountain that Smokes ' ' should 

 be climbed, and climbed soon. It will 

 not be a difficult feat, and the reward 

 will be unique. It is not likely that 

 the summit of Mount McKinley will be 

 reached at an early date, and so Mount 

 Wrangell should be the first of the 

 great interior peaks of Alaska to be 

 scaled. The attempt is earnestly rec- 

 ommended to any one of the numerous 

 active mountaineering clubs of the 

 United States. The line of perpetual 

 snow is at about 6,500 feet, and the 

 summit rises 7,500 feet above this. At 

 this summit is a crater which sends out 

 columns of smoke 3 miles high. The 

 relation of the crater to the ice cap will 

 be most interesting, and the mere feat 

 of first reaching the summit of the only 

 known active volcano in the interior of 

 the continent north of the Mexican 

 line may well appeal to any man. 



There are at least four feasible routes 

 of approach. One is from a plateau at 

 the head of Dadina River, between 

 Mount Drum and Mount Wrangell, and 

 the way leads southeastward past the 

 base of Mount Zanetti, the spur to the 

 summit. A temporary camp can be 

 placed on the mesa at the edge of the 

 ice cap from the valley of the Dadina 

 or the Sanford. It may be possible to 

 take horses up on this mesa from the 

 Dadina Valley, but the matter has not 

 been put to a practical test. From such 

 a camp the march to the summit would 

 be long, 10 or n miles, but would lead 

 past the foot of Mount Zanetti over a 

 snowfield which is very smooth. 



Two routes, either of which is prob- 

 ably feasible, lead from the head of the 

 valley of the Chetaslina River. The 

 middle fork of this stream rises from a 

 double glacier, which owes its compound 

 character to a nunatak about 3 miles 

 long, rising above the ice level at about 

 an equal distance back from the foot of 



