Notable Mountaineering in ipo^. 47 



hours trying slope after slope in wearing endeavor, un- 

 til they finally found the only way, up which one of their 

 number, E. B. Gould, was to guide us. 



Entering at the foot of one of these great chimneys, 

 our way led upward for twenty-five hundred feet, at 

 times over small snow-patches, again climbing with hands 

 and feet on the rocks bordering the slope, at times — and 

 here most guardedly— zigzagging across and back over 

 the insecure, shifting floor of the chimney, where a step 

 loosened masses of broken talus, and great rocks, started 

 at a touch, went leaping and bounding to a resting-place 

 at the base of the mountain. By careful dodging and 

 extreme watchfulness we escaped all accident, and finally 

 reached the saddle at the top of the chimney. This in- 

 deed seemed the limit of our powers, and our guide 

 waited while we scanned the towering clifif for a way 

 up. Finally he showed us a broken crevice up its face, 

 extending forty feet and ending on a small shelf. Two 

 of the men preceded, and then one by one we followed, — 

 toes, knees, hands, and elbows, all came into play. A 

 rope was let down and looped slackly about the women, 

 who climbed up, thus reassured, without a misstep, and 

 without its aid, except the assurance of safety in case of 

 a slip. From this standpoint we crawled through a hole 

 under a large rock and out upon the final ridge. A last 

 scramble up over great masses of broken granite brought 

 us to the summit beside the two monuments, where we 

 rested and enjoyed the outlook, incomparably grander 

 than that from Whitney, because it includes a view of 

 majestic Whitney itself, and also of the Sierra to the 

 northward, which Williamson hides from the beholder on 

 Whitney. 



