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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



difficulty. Gaining the top of the cliff we turned to the 

 southward and followed close along its edge. The face 

 of the wall was so nearly perpendicular that frequently 

 we could not see the floor of the basin close along its 

 foot. We passed directly above where we had camped, 

 crossing by one good step the stream which the evening 

 before had furnished so much water for the falls. Here 

 we changed our course to the southeast and began climb- 

 ing again. 



We were not yet certain which of the peaks in front 

 of us was Ritter. As we advanced our doubts became 

 more and more perplexing. We realized that climbing 

 the wrong peak meant lots of unnecessary hard work 

 and the loss of a day's time. By the general contours 

 of the topographic map the mountain in front of us 

 should be Ritter, but the lakes laid down did not exactly 

 correspond to those we found. Finally, deciding that 

 it is always better to determine to a certainty your moun- 

 tain before climbing it, two of the party were sent to 

 make a reconnaissance to the northeast while the others 

 rested. 



With the aid of the map the scouts located Banner 

 Mountain to the north, from which it was easy to deter- 

 mine the position of Ritter. It was a great relief to the 

 whole party when they returned with the report that it 

 was indeed our mountain which loomed above us. With 

 joyous hearts we cached our packs on a convenient 

 ledge, stripped ourselves of all unnecessary weight, and 

 started on the last fifteen hundred feet of the climb. 



We crossed a lake still hidden by many feet of snow, 

 excepting along one margin where the ice had parted 

 from the shore and where gleamed a long, thin crescent 

 of brilliant turquoise blue. Beyond the lake we climbed 

 a snow-buried ridge and passed into a cirque, at the 

 bottom of which there must be true glacier ice. This 

 cirque lies due west of Ritter and receives the snow which 

 moves down its slope on that side. Looking southward 



