ITS 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



eighteen goats. Southward our ridge extended in a series 

 of sharp peaks, each with a precipitous eastern wall. On 

 the east we looked into Buck Creek Canon and down its 

 length to the Chiwawa Valley. Northward we could fol- 

 low the course of our fog-bound trail over Glacier Pass, 

 and past the group of mountains on the western flank of 

 Suiattle Pass, and beyond that fancied we could recognize 

 the great snowfields of Mt. Sahale at the very head of the 

 Stehekin, the goal of the first Mazama outing to the 

 Chelan region in 1899. Glacier Peak lay to the west, 

 wrapped in golden haze and purple shadows. 



The main interest of the trip of course centered about 

 the conquest of this mountain. On the first clear morn- 

 ing an advance party of five men had started for it to in- 

 vestigate the best route for the ascent. No trail to the 

 mountain exists except the rough way blazed through 

 the forest by The Mountaineers on their 1910 outing, 

 which leads to a camp site on the mountain's flank whence 

 the climb can easily be made. They reported to have 

 taken horses as far as the Suiattle River, but we found the 

 way so littered with new fallen trees and so swampy from 

 recent rains that it was judged best to knapsack the entire 

 ten miles to the base camp. 



Three parties in all made the ascent, four men of the 

 advance guard, two of whom climbed again three days 

 later with the main party of nineteen, and a third group 

 of six headed by the chairman of the outing committee. 

 We who comprised the latter party made the trip in two 

 days instead of the three allotted the main climb. 



We left Buck Creek Pass early the morning of August 

 14th, equipped with knapsacks and cameras, with alpen- 

 stocks and ice axes in hand and with boots well fortified 

 with ice calks. The way led down Meadow Creek 

 through a series of alpine meadows where the shadows of 

 tall firs threw long dark bars across the vivid green of the 

 grass. The clouds had all disappeared; the sky was as 

 brilliant a blue as on a Sierra morning and there was a 

 clear, sharp tang in the air that presaged autumn even 



