Mt. Lye II and Mt. Ritter Ascents. 



i8i 



MT. LYELL AND MT. RITTER ASCENTS BY SIERRA 

 CLUB OUTING OF 1904. 



By Russ Avery. 



MT. LYELL. 



Bang ! W-o-w ! " Everybody get up, get up, get 

 up ! " These explosive sounds in the early dawn that 

 have become so familiar to the outing members of the 

 Sierra Club were just as potent at 3 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing at the base camp on Lyell Creek as they were when, 

 for the first time, the cunning cruelty of man inflicted 

 them upon an innocent sleeping humanity. 



The startling sound produced by shooting off the giant 

 bomb went crashing among the trees, was hurled from 

 cliff to cliff, and its reverberating echo had barely died 

 in the distance before every tree and rock seemed alive 

 and calling to its neighbor to be up and doing, for " to- 

 morrow " had come — the strenuous day set apart for the 

 climbing of snow-clad Mt. Lyell. 



In a few minutes indistinct figures could be seen 

 slipping out of the dark recesses of the forest into the dim 

 light of the camp-fire and forming themselves into ani- 

 mated groups around the steaming kettles and the fra- 

 grant coffee-pots. It is said that the imminence of danger 

 and the comradeship of the mountains makes brothers of 

 us all. A cursory view of these shadowy forms confirmed 

 this observation, for all the women in the party, in 

 obedience to the rules of the committee for this day, had 

 eschewed the conventional and cumbersome skirts and 



