176 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



Clouds still overhung us next morning so that from the 

 time we crossed Suiattle Pass until we reached perma- 

 nent camp at Buck Creek Pass we caught scarcely a 

 glimpse of the surrounding scenery. A visit to the 

 Glacier Copper Mine; the shrill protests of an unseen 

 colony of alarmed whistling marmots ; a long climb 

 through veils of driving mist with here and there a phan- 

 tasmal tree form or a vision-like, distant snow-field show- 

 ing in ghostly fashion through the fog; the open, sloping 

 meadows of Glacier Pass where a bandanna-hooded, semi- 

 frozen member of the advance party awaited us ; a quick 

 descent, and another long climb — these rise to memory as 

 mile posts marking the passage of that gray day. As we 

 rounded the last summit the fog lifted somewhat, and we 

 saw, half a mile ahead of us, the green meadows and 

 wooded ridges of Buck Creek Pass. 



The mists soon closed in again. For twenty-four hours 

 the clouds rolled past us, shutting out all view of our sur- 

 roundings; but the second morning broke clear, and we 

 were awakened by the cry, "Come, look at the mountain !" 

 Hastily dressing, and running up the ridge to the west of 

 camp we at last beheld the mountain we were to climb, 

 and could appreciate, the more fully since it broke upon 

 us all at once out of the clouds that had so long hidden it, 

 the great beauty of this little-known region. 



Glacier Peak, reaching an altitude of 10,436 feet, out- 

 tops all its companions by two thousand feet or more. To 

 the southeast lies a beautiful range of rugged, dark, 

 tumultuous peaks, all glacier-crowned and gleaming with 

 snow-fields, the most picturesque of an almost infinite 

 series of sharp ranges which, with their accompanying 

 deeply cut canons, have long served to keep Glacier Peak 

 hidden and unknown. The whole region is much wilder 

 and more alpine in character than are any of the regions 

 surrounding the other great volcanic peaks of Washing- 

 ton, and it was as late as August, 1898, that the first ascent 

 was made by the United States Geological Survey. Only 

 three ascents previous to 1910 are recorded. 



