The Mazama Club Outing to Glacier Peak. i8i 



yellow and pearly gray. Above the cloud ocean the black 

 summits of the neighboring peaks rose like islands. 

 Often on wintry days at sunset we may in fancy discern 

 the shore line of an undiscovered country sketched in 

 bright-toned cloud tracery upon the western sky. Here 

 was a terrestrial likeness of that cloud-land coast, high 

 capes and islands against whose dark shores the mist surf 

 beat as silently as the waves of light upon the coast line 

 of the sky. 



Our pumice ridge ended in a thumb of loose, crumbling 

 rock which in turn brought us to the edge of the upper 

 ice-fields. Taking a devious course among enormous cre- 

 vasses, icicle-hung and blue-shadowed, we reached at 

 length the pumice ridge on the southern saddle, and 

 climbed along it, and up the final rocky face to the summit. 

 As the ice-fields of our mountain fell below us and our 

 horizon widened, one by one the distant giant peaks came 

 into sight — Rainier, St. Helens, Baker and Shuksan, all 

 shining in full sunlight above the great sea of fog. 



Before nine o'clock the easy cHmb was over, so we had 

 ample time for a good rest and the consumption of a 

 second can of tomatoes as well as for that leisurely enjoy- 

 ment of the scene that a mountain top demands. On the 

 southwest side, in a group of rocks that forms a portion 

 of the ancient crater's rim, we found the record, and 

 added our names to the twenty-one Mazamas already 

 registered there. The crater is not so well defined as on 

 Rainier or St. Helens. As on these mountains, and Baker 

 as well, the actual summit is a rounding mound of snow. 

 As long as we remained there the clouds to the west, be- 

 tween Rainier and Baker, remained almost unbroken, but 

 towards the east and south they began to drift and break 

 even before we reached the top. Vistas of canons and 

 mountain chains without number opened before us, the 

 valleys all a soft monotone of blue. 



A little before ten o'clock we started back. The loose 

 pumice ridges, while giving heavy work on the climb, 

 make easy going on the descent, so though the snow in no 



