Scrambles About Yosemite 



and some half-mile beyond the upper end of the gorge. Here 

 was the first chance to use our sneakers, so hob-nailed boots 

 were taken off, and by using hands and feet for friction duty, 

 we worked carefully down to the talus at last. 



The day was now so far advanced that we gave up our plan 

 to visit the upper end of the gorge, and so pushed right on up 

 the bed of the canon, through brush and boulders, to the 

 foot of the great fall which blocks the upper end, and there, 

 under the shadow of a huge talus fragment, we stopped for 

 lunch. 



This fall, though some 500 feet high, is not vertical, but 

 slides down the bare rock face of the eastern wall. Directly 

 at the head of the main canon is a rounded dome about 1,500 

 feet high, the fall being to the right of the dome. To the left 

 of the dome a rugged gulch filled with brush furnishes a 

 possible means of leaving the canon, and reaching the Tenaya 

 trail 2,000 feet above. 



The passage of* this fall is one of the most interesting 

 problems of the trip. Corbett and Gibbs, with the aid of their 

 rope, worked down the rock slope along the northern edge of 

 the fall. This is certainly dangerous, and seems almost im- 

 possible to accomplish from below. Foster found a better 

 way by ascending the Clouds Rest slope about a quarter of a 

 mile below the fall and climbing over the low dome which 

 guards it on the southeast, thence descending slightly to the 

 valley at its head. This latter way we chose. At one place a 

 long point of brush runs up the rock face. From the upper 

 end of this the smooth front of the canon wall must be nego- 

 tiated, and this in some places approaches a forty-five-degree 

 angle. After lunch we tackled it with our rubber-soled tennis 

 shoes. The brush was so dense that at first we made better 

 progress by walking on the rock alongside of it, getting assist- 

 ance from the dense overhanging branches. At the upper end 

 of the brush we had to cut loose, and walk straight up the 

 steep rock. About 500 feet of this brought us to another patch 

 of talus and brush, after reaching which there was no further 

 trouble. This field of talus leads to the right of the small 

 dome, and rises about 600 feet in vertical height. On the 

 shoulder of the dome is a huge glacial erratic, from which a 



