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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



holding the end of the rope, planted it again, the step- 

 makers went forward, and again we advanced six or 

 eight steps. Sixteen times the rope was shifted in this 

 manner, and sixteen times we stood for five or more 

 minutes motionless in the freezing cold, our hands and 

 feet so numb that it seemed almost impossible to move 

 when the signal to change position was given. 



It was fortunate that all of us were not equally aware 

 of the gravity of the situation. The rope, insufficiently 

 secured as it was, could not have borne much strain, and, 

 as our company was largely composed of tenderfeet, there 

 was among us scarcely one in five who knew how to save 

 himself from the consequences of a slip on the easiest 

 snow slope, much less on the glassy, steep surface of 

 that ice. Had some of the novices realized how easily a 

 single misstep could have precipitated one or more of us 

 into the cruel pile of rocks that lay so far below, anj 

 attack of unreasoning panic might have brought about ] 

 that very catastrophe. That no accident did occur is ' 

 due in great measure to the cool, unhurried, confident 

 manner of our leaders, to whose work that night too high 

 praise cannot be accorded. 



We reached the rocks at last, but not until every ray 

 of daylight was gone. The young moon, from which we 

 had expected some assistance, was hidden behind the 

 mountain, and though its light could be dimly perceived 

 on the distant landscape below us, we were in shadow, 

 in almost complete darkness. While we stood there, 

 shivering, hungry, inexpressibly weary in body, and in 

 mind almost despairing of ever reaching shelter that 

 night, two lights flickered up, far, far below — beacon fires 

 that our comrades had kindled to help us find the way. 

 It is difficult to describe what hope and encouragement 

 those two little friendly gleams put into our hearts. They 

 typified the warmth and sympathy of human fellowship 

 as against the merciless indifiference that nature in her 

 sterner moods shows to the needs, even to the lives, of 

 men. 



