The High Mountain Route. 



9 



within its gateway a sheer cliff i,ooo feet high stretched 

 across the gorge from wall to wall, and over it the creek 

 tumbled in a mass of snowy foam. As our trail climbed 

 higher on the opposite slope of the main canon we could 

 look directly up the Recess to where a magnificent snowy 

 peak towered at its head. This seemed the highest point 

 about, and might be Mount Abbott, though its general 

 form did not seem to be that of the Bear Creek giant as 

 viewed from Red Slate and others. We soon passed the 

 Fourth Recess and pushed on till about 4 p. m., when 

 the crest of the Sierra was reached at the Mono Creek 

 Pass, about 12,000 feet above sea level. Here Mount 

 Abbott burst upon our delighted vision, towering in sheer 

 cliffs high above the snowfields of the Eastern Slope, — 

 absolutely inaccessible from that side. The peak at the 

 head of the Fourth Recess was not in sight, and though 

 quite certain now that it could not be the true Mount 

 Abbott, we decided to ascend it first, to get a better idea 

 of the country. So we descended to camp, and went to 

 bed early, with a hard day behind us and a still harder 

 one in prospect. 



By daybreak of the loth, we were marching up the 

 canon of Mono Creek with lunch, cameras, and rope. 

 At the Fourth Recess we left the main stream and turned 

 up the gorge to the south to a large lake at the base of 

 the great cliff that blocked the mouth of the Recess. 

 Though it was impossible to climb up alongside the 

 falls, we managed by scrambling up the canon wall to 

 the right to get around the end of the cliff, and descend 

 to the shelf at the top of the fall. Here the Recess 

 opened out into a great amphitheatre at the base of our 

 peak. The eastern side was walled in by the Main 

 Crest, — a continuous cliff fringed with spires. The west- 

 ern side rose in jagged peaks striped with snow. The 

 floor was covered with unbroken snowfields or frozen 

 lakes, while the peak we were about to try rose high into 

 the black-blue sky above a small residual glacier. We 

 examined the front of the mountain with our field glasses, 



