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Sierra Club Bulletin 



ence and Lake Washburn. By this route the way is made easy for a 

 considerable distance toward the mountain. Probably the best place to 

 leave the trail is when it crosses a small stream that flows into Lake 

 Washburn from the northeast. This stream comes from the snow-fields 

 of Mount Florence and may be followed to its sources. From the snow- 

 fields the way can hardly be mistaken. It is just a question of scram- 

 bling up over shale and great rough weather-beaten rocks. There is a 

 false summit a few hundred feet from the real summit, but the traverse 

 between them is easy. The north side of the mountain is a tremendous 

 precipice, dropping to a vast snowy amphitheater that stretches toward 

 the base of McClure. Francis Peloubet Farquhar 



First Ascent of South Guard ( 12,964 feet) 



On July 26, 1916, after leaving in camp at East Lake those of our fel- 

 low-knapsackers who were less strenuously inclined, or who were more 

 ardent fishermen, Miss Florence Burrell, Miss Inezetta Holt, Mr. James 

 Rennie, and the writer made the ascent of South Guard by following 

 Ousel Creek to the unbroken snow-field of its upper basin, where, after 

 finding the snow too solidly frozen to afford secure footing on the steep 

 slopes (we had no ice-ax), we chose the rocky knife-edge extending to 

 the summit from the northeast. This necessitated a long and arduous 

 climb. The knife-edge is very thin, and is composed, for the most part, 

 of very loose rock. Added to the interest of the climb was the uncer- 

 tainty of whether this route would lead to the summit or whether a 

 precipice would bar all further progress, an uncertainty which was not 

 removed until the summit was actually reached about 12 130 p. m. 



We found no evidence of any previous ascent of the peak. After 

 building a small cairn of rocks on the larger block which constitutes the 

 summit, we placed a record in a sardine-can, ate that part of our lunches 

 which was left after the many stops on the long ascent, took a few mo- 

 ments with binoculars to watch a Sierra Club party which by now was 

 descending Mount Brewer, and then began the descent. 



As our party had planned to move camp from East Lake to Vidette 

 Meadows, an additional eight-mile walk must be added to the return. 

 To descend by the same knife-edge which we had utilized in the ascent 

 would necessitate several hours of very careful and slow climbing. 

 Surely this plan would permit darkness to overtake us long before reach- 

 ing camp at Vidette Meadows. After a brief conference with Mr. Ren- 

 nie, it was decided to try to find a place where we could cross the north 

 face of the rocky knife-edge and descend to the snow, which we hoped 

 would be softer by this time than we had found it in the early morning, 

 and would afford a route for descending more rapidly. While the rest 

 were crossing the first ledges of the north face more slowly, Mr. Rennie 

 went ahead scouting and soon located a possible route. In following we 

 crossed several narrow ledges and started some miniature avalanches in 



