First Ascent: Mt. Humphreys. 173 



was tearing down the chute directly toward those below 

 us. We shouted like mad for Noble and Whitney to 

 get out of the way. They looked back and saw the torrent 

 coming. This chute was bounded on its eastern side by 

 a precipitous wall in which, near where they were' 

 standing, was a deep vertical niche. They rushed for 

 this, and had no sooner concealed themselves than the 

 avalanche went shooting past them. This was a warning, 

 and thenceforth in similar places we all remained close 

 together. In an hour we had reached the top of the 

 talus. Here, by making a slight detour, we reached a 

 snow-field which gave us a toboggan-slide of several 

 hundred feet down to the granite basin. It seemed like 

 an easy matter to cut across this basin directly to our 

 camp, but the similarity of the snow-fields, lakes, and the 

 granite bosses made it like a maze, and even when we 

 were within a short distance of our camp it took us many 

 long minutes of searching to locate it. Soon a drink of 

 some newly brewed tea refreshed us. 



A\'e were unanimous that we ought not to remain 

 another night in this exposed place, and so at once shoul- 

 dered our bundles and descended five hundred feet to 

 the thickest of the several clumps of trees which we had 

 passed the day before. Here, beside an old sheep-corral, 

 we made a more comfortable camp, protected on all sides 

 by the mountain pines, and having here a bountiful supply 

 of wood. Below us was a fine brook, and a plunge in this 

 had the magical effect of making us whole again and 

 putting new life into every fiber, vein, and muscle. What 

 a glorious camp-fire we had that night! How brilliant 

 the moon seemed! How comfortable and cozy seemed 

 our combined kitchen, social hall, and bedroom I 



