362 



RECREATION. 



A black pall of smoke hung heavily over 

 everything. From our great elevation, not 

 even the summit of Mt. Hood could be 

 seen. Through the smoke the sun rose like 

 a great red ball of fire. Everything had 

 a strange, weird aspect that savored of some 

 other world than ours. The wind seemed 

 to have no effect on the smoke. The 

 dark ocean hung as still and leaden as 

 though not a breath of air was stirring. 



Our course, which, up to that time, had 

 been Northwesterly, then turned to the 

 North. We went up the ridge directly to- 

 ward the dome of the mountain. The wind 

 continued to blow furiously and it was 

 with the greatest difficulty that we made any 

 headway against it. One of us, while climb- 

 ing over a large boulder, was^ actually 

 blown off. Nevertheless, we fo'ught our 

 way slowly upward, stopping often to get 

 breath and a little rest. As we proceeded 

 we saw, after a time, that the wind was 

 diminishing in force. That gave us new 

 courage and we hastened our pace, soon ar- 

 riving at a point where the ridge intercept- 

 ed the main, steep slope of the peak. 



Glancing to the West a few hundred 

 yards we saw 2 men steadily making their 

 way across the snow, toward the great slope. 

 Each carried a pack and was armed with 

 a long alpenstock. They were progressing 

 rapidly and they proved to be Mazamas. 

 Waving our alpenstocks aloft we shouted 

 to them. After some delay they saw 

 us, among the rocks, and answered. The 

 desire to be the first to reach the top took 

 fresh hold of us as soon as we knew cer- 

 tainly that we had competitors. Neither 

 party had much the advantage in position, 

 although we had no doubt they were better 

 equipped for climbing than we were. It 

 was also likely that they were among the 

 best climbers of the club and as yet we 

 were not so sure of our ability to cope with 

 them. We resolved, however, to do our 

 best, determined not to give up the contest 

 without a desperate struggle. 



Between the upper end of the big ridge 

 and the long slope is a slight depression 

 where a few small gravel beds lie between 

 the glittering stretches of snow. Down 

 into this depression we hurried ; but were 

 compelled to halt and re-arrange the gunny 

 sacks on our feet. That lost us considerable 

 time. We could see old tracks in the gravel 

 which, we judged, were left by the party 

 that had taken the heliograph to the summit 

 some days previous. 



Once more we turned to the mighty, glis- 

 tening slope, that towered above us in al- 

 most unbroken monotony. About 200 yards 

 to the West a streak of the rugged boulders 

 stretched up the mountain to the first sum- 

 mit. Four years before I had been glad to 

 seek the shelter of those big rocks, while 

 attempting to a c cend the mountain in a ter- 



rible storm. This time, however, we chose 

 the snow as a better footing. The crust 

 had softened considerably while the wind, 

 strange to say, had subsided to a gentle 

 breeze, cold and bracing. 



Then came the tug of war ! We ob- 

 served that the Mazamas were hugging the 

 rocks. Their number had suddenly in- 

 creased from 2 to 6, and they were making 

 what looked to us alarmingly rapid prog- 

 ress. Experience ha'Q taught us, however, 

 that haste is worse than useless on a big 

 mountain and he who takes his time will 

 probably come out ahead in the end. Slow- 

 ly and steadily we pushed upward. The 

 great ridge fell farther below us, the smoke 

 above us became thinner, while the dark 

 bank beneath grew blacker and more im- 

 penetrable. 



The Mazamas were clearly separating. 

 Two were falling behind while one was 

 forging ahead of his companions. He 

 seemed to be a magnificent climber. Soon 

 he was quite a distance in advance of us 

 and still gaining". Since our exchange of 

 signals with the first 2 no communications 

 had passed between them and ourselves. 

 We were not within speaking distance and 

 that was no time to waste precious lung 

 power in needless yells. We struggled up- 

 ward with little change in our relative po- 

 sitions. After awhile, however, it seemed 

 to us we were gaining slightly on the fore- 

 most of our opponents. This slowly be- 

 came a certainty. Our former suspicion 

 that he was overdoing himself proved 

 correct. Steadily and surely we passed 

 him and after we had once gained the lead 

 it was astonishing to see how quickly the 

 distance between us and the others in- 

 creased. We might have been led to think 

 they were going back had we not been able 

 to see them still clambering up over the 

 rocks. Suddenly Mr. Derting exclaimed, 



"Hood ! Hood !" 



Far away to the South, the sharp peak of 

 Mt. Hood rose above the wall of smoke, 

 seemingly suspended like a mighty white 

 bell between heaven and earth. It was 

 the only point of land to be seen in that 

 vast ocean and its lower portion was 

 invisible, while the summit looked more like 

 a phantom of the air than a substantial por- 

 tion of terra fir ma. 



We had been bearing to the left for some 

 time and that course at length took us to 

 the streak of bare rocks that the Mazamas 

 were following. When we reached it we 

 were about 200 yards in advance of them. 

 The man who had made such good time at 

 the start had been passed by 2 others. 



During our climb up the snowy slope we, 

 from time to time, saw men advancing, 

 singly and in pairs, across the gradual de- 

 clines far below. From our elevation they 

 appeared as mere specks on the snow and 



