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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



touched the summits. Our destination was revealed. 

 The immense heights that we were to scale were dwarfed 

 by the distance of the range, but the steepness and the 

 contrast of color were both there. Peeping low down 

 through the green of our oasis was the somber brown of 

 the Alabamas, the last tiny range of the desert. Above 

 it rose the gray of the Sierra, the sky line one long suc- 

 cession of saw-like points. The height and the majesty 

 of them we were to appreciate as the days passed by. 



Of snow there was apparently but little, and only two 

 passes were dreaded by my companion and guide. He 

 had blasted a trail to the summit under conditions that 

 try men's souls. I had tested a small but efficient outfit 

 for winter mountaineering and felt confident that we 

 could live in comfort for ten days with the equipment 

 and supplies we could haul up the mountain face. In 

 the joint experience of the two there was the assurance 

 of success. 



Marsh, my companion, is English and gritty; he also 

 is a droll fellow and enlivened the day. Our route trav- 

 ersed the Alabamas with their sculptured rocks and Lone 

 Pine Cafion, guarded by a majestic peak of similar name. 

 We had pushed the horses up the mountain far beyond 

 our expectation and by dint of manoeuvering we had 

 driven them over the snowfields until we had gained 

 the forested nook at the foot of Lone Pine Falls. I 

 hastened to send the French-Irish lad back with the 

 animals for fear that darkness should overtake him 

 in the cafion. I did not realize that my vision was dark- 

 ened by wearing smoked glasses. My companion sug- 

 gested that we put green goggles on horses to make 

 them think that straw was hay. 



Marsh is a desert man by inclination. He has made a 

 bed for himself on some needles under the lee of a boulder 

 despite my suggestion that he try the snow. 



Marsh is going to bed and has wormed his way into 

 the sleeping-bag as laboriously as a snake works his way 

 out of his winter skin. I inquired about the pillow sack 



