122 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



THE ASCENT OF SAN ANTONIO. 

 By Willoughby Rodman. 



The highest mountains of Southern CaUfornia are 

 Grayback (also known as San Bernardino) and San 

 Gorgonio. These two peaks rise from a common base, 

 and, with that uncertainty which characterizes the 

 nomenclature of this section, the three names given are 

 appHed to them indiscriminately. 



The higher of these peaks attains an altitude of more 

 than 12,000 feet, and is said to rise higher above the 

 level land immediately surrounding it than any mountain 

 in the world. 



To the southeast rises Mt. San Jacinto, an extinct 

 volcano, whose rumblings even to-day cause the Indians 

 to speak of it as the abode of evil spirits. This moun- 

 tain is said to have the highest vertical rock wall of any 

 mountain in the world.* 



But the best-known mountain, the real king of the 

 Sierra Madre Range, is San Antonio, erroneously (and 

 lovingly) called " Old Baldy.'^ 



Situated near the center of the complicated system of 

 canons and ranges comprising the Sierra Madre Range, 

 towering far above its neighbors, " Old Baldy " is the 

 dominant feature of the landscape. It is the first promi- 

 nent mountain to greet the traveler from the north or 



* What Southern California lacks in altitude of its mountains is made up by 

 he altitude of its lies. 



