30 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



the packer's dog, who had obstinately and trustfully per- 

 sisted in following us that morning, could be heard in 

 violent protest against the folly of mankind and moun- 

 taineers. 



Of the forty-six climbers who started forty-one reached 

 the summit before noon. The few who failed to register 

 had made the worst part of the climb, but were prevented 

 by mountain sickness from attempting the final thousand 

 feet of safe but difficult work that lay between the end of 

 the knife-edge and the summit. So they were guided 

 down one of the intersecting ridges to the south. 



Those of us who reached the goal will long remember 

 the panorama which greeted our eyes. Northward, close 

 at hand, loomed the deeply dentated crest of the North 

 Kaweahs, their rugged flanks descending in sharp knife- 

 edges towards the treeless upper reaches of the Big 

 Arroyo; the Great Western Divide lay beyond, lofty, 

 boldly carved peaks and giant cirques in whose barren 

 waste of rocks and snow scores of little glacial lakes 

 shone and glittered like jewels ; to the south and east the 

 series of high plateaus were merged into one vast plain 

 cut deeply by the Big Arroyo and the Kern; and facing 

 east and towards the north again we looked across the 

 basin of the Kern to Williamson and Whitney, their 

 mighty forms half veiled in storm clouds. 



The western slope, which we chose for the descent, 

 proved to be composed of loose shale, easy on the down- 

 ward path, but of so tedious and uninspiring a nature for 

 an ascent that, forgetting the tremors of the morning, 

 we were soon congratulating ourselves on having missed 

 its drudgery and having enjoyed the most interesting 

 climb the Kaweah could have afforded. While we had 

 been climbing the packers had moved camp to the shores 

 of Moraine Lake. There, at the close of the day, we 

 found them, with fires cheerfully burning and supper 

 under way, and Stub, weary and footsore, but with 

 unchastened spirit, ready to greet each returning moun- 

 taineer with wild yaps of delight. 



