4 



Sierra Club B idle tin. 



Kaweah peaks streaked with snow, which towered up far 

 across the Kern-Kaweah Canon into the rosy light of early 

 morning. It might well have been the inspiration for Wil- 

 liam Keith's famous painting, "The California Alps." 



Still following up the main stream we ascended into 

 Milestone Bow, an immense cirque with stupendous walls 

 on all sides. Milestone itself stands out prominently 

 against the sky-line from the extreme head of the cirque, 

 and is seen to be a jagged backbone of some length, instead 

 of the narrow spire which it appears to be when viewed 

 from either end of the ridge which forms it. We crossed the 

 cirque following along a low rib of glaciated granite and 

 started to climb the wall at the upper end of the cirque just 

 below and to the left of the main peak. By selecting our 

 way we found no .trouble in ascending from one shelf to 

 another, and only had to exercise care where melting snow 

 of th^ previous day had flowed over the rounded surface 

 and during the night formed a solid coating of glary ice. 



We easily reached the base of the main peak, whose per- 

 pendicular walls towered directly above. I must assume the 

 mistake of judgment which followed and which was the 

 result of my too firm conviction of the difficult if not un- 

 climbable character of the peak. The approach to the sum- 

 mit from either end of the serrated backbone which formed 

 the main peak seemed impossible. As we had viewed from 

 below the last cliff which rose some five hundred feet above 

 us we had picked out several inclined ledges which crossed 

 the face and which we felt afforded a feasible way of work- 

 ing up. With considerable effort and careful boosting up of 

 the first two and hauling up of the last man we managed to 

 negotiate one ledge after another until we found ourselves 

 on a ledge not more than one hundred and fifty feet below 

 the summit. At this point the summit actually overhung 

 several feet and water from a small patch of melting snow 

 on top dripped clear of the face above us. Unfortunately, 

 we could find no feasible means of leaving this ledge and 

 climbing higher. We were about to descend, in spite of the 

 fact that the summit, but such a short distance away, proved 

 most tantalizing, when I suggested that if Mr. Farquhar, 



