3i8 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



Some Further Experiments with Sleeping-Bag and Sled on 

 Winter Trips. 



After three more ventures under all the evil conditions that 

 the devotee of long winter trips would believe that nature could 

 feasibly prepare for him, I gladly avail myself of the present 

 opportunity to supplement my earlier observations made on the 

 subject of winter trips in previous issues of the Bulletin. 



The first requisite is snow-shoes, and after continued experi- 

 menting I have been unable to obtain any shoe superior to the 

 "Algane Schnee-Reifen," Form a, described in volume IV of the 

 Bulletin, page 64 (January, 1902), for trips requiring both 

 sledging and the traversing of steep incrusted slopes. In newly 

 fallen snow they are too small. But after the gruelling process 

 of treading the feathery snow was over and a treacherous sur- 



face had to be traversed, they immediately regained their repu- 

 tation as equal both to the ice-ax and rock moccasin combined. 



If possible, the elliptical shoe mentioned in the same article 

 should be taken for use where the snow is not sufficiently packed 

 or incrusted to bear one's weight without sinking more than 

 four inches. When it is considered that one must be a draught- 

 animal on such trips, the uselessness of the ski is at once 

 apparent. 



The home-made sled that had been used on our " New-Year 

 Outing in the Sierra" (Bulletin, Vol. IV, p. 216), had been 

 found altogether too heavy. I purchased a child's sled with bent 

 legs, for one dollar, and by making two simple changes, shown 

 in the above cut, adapted it to the work in hand. Galvanized- 

 iron runners two and one half inches wide were riveted on. 

 At the bend of the runner the iron was doubled to withstand 

 battering. The bed also was removed and a strip of ash boards 



