On the Trail with the Sierra Club. 63 



direction of Secretary Colby and Mr. Parsons, was dimly 

 discernible as a wavering line. A few minutes after 7 

 the quintet was at the top, and members of the main party 

 kept arriving steadily until, about the middle of the fore- 

 noon, all had safely conquered the mountain — one hun- 

 dred and three persons. Considering the size of the party 

 and the height of the mountain (14,522 ft.), July 12th 

 deserves to be remembered in connection with one of the 

 most remarkable achievements in the history of moun- 

 taineering. Thanks to the clearness of the atmosphere, 

 the view from the top, especially in the early morning, 

 was several degrees beyond the reach of superlatives. It 

 would burden my account too much to mention even the 

 more prominent among the countless peaks that lifted 

 their glittering crests to the north, south, and west. On 

 the Nevada side the mountain fell off in sheer precipices, 

 leading to depths so awful that it fairly made one's head 

 swim. Two miles beneath our feet lay Owen's Lake, 

 and a few miles north of it the little town of Lone Pine. 

 Farther southeast, beyond the Panamint Range, lay the 

 expanse of Death Valley, its floor two hundred and eighty 

 feet below sea-level — ^the sink of the Armagosa River. 

 Here the lowest and the highest places in the United 

 States are within sight of each other. Many lingered 

 for hours oyer this never-to-be-forgotten panorama. 

 Some added to their record the Needles that form part 

 of Whitney, and visited the glacial lakes at the base. 

 Before nightfall all were back in camp. The next evening 

 saw the party encamped at the head of the Kern Canon, 

 where under the shadow of Picket Guard the Kern- 

 Kaweah and the East Fork of the Kern lash their foaming 

 waters through precipitous gorges into the grand canon. 



