Sierra Club Bulletin 



too small to accommodate our whole party at once, so scant 

 opportunity was given to enjoy the view we had toiled and 

 risked so much to gain. As daylight hours were growing few 

 we descended to the snow-fields by a shorter route. Three 

 times only by prompt action were serious accidents averted, for 

 not only was the descent dangerous, but many were feeling 

 the strain of long hours of exertion. Once on the snow-fields 

 we made rapid time and before dark were in camp, thankful 

 that a really dangerous climb was safely over. 



Three days later we started for Mt. Olympus, knapsacking, 

 as late snows prevented animals from crossing Dodwell-Rixon 

 Pass. A climb of 2,500 feet and a walk of five miles brought 

 us to temporary camp in Queets Basin, a park-like valley be- 

 tween Mt. Queets and Mt. Olympus. On three sides rose dark 

 mountains relieved by great snow-fields and masses of glacial 

 ice. Camp was on a sloping bench between two deep cut 

 streams. Groups of alpine firs and hemlocks, mountain pine 

 and Alaska cedar (Chamuecyparis nootkatensis) framed lovely 

 pictures of Mt. Queets ; but Olympus, whose triple crown had 

 shone grandly before us from Dodwell-Rixon Pass, was hid- 

 den by the front of the Humes Glacier, a wonderful wall of 

 pillared seracs buttressing the flaming sunset arch overhead. 

 Our camp was carpeted with thick mats of bryanthus, cassiope 

 and dwarf huckleberry, and bordered with rhododendron 

 patches or tall white spikes of squaw grass (Xerophyllum 

 tenax). In the hollows erythronium lilies budded through the 

 snow, and along stream-beds and marshy bottoms bloomed 

 patches of buttercups, veronica, blue violets or the curious, 

 insectivorous pingukula vulgaris. 



Sunset was a glorious spectacle, enjoyed by many of us 

 from our sleeping-bags that we might be better prepared for 

 our fire-light breakfast before dawn. Sixty-seven of us made 

 the climb, longer but easier than the try-out on Seattle had 

 been. Our course lay over the Humes Glacier, across Bliz- 

 zard Pass, down seven hundred feet to the Hoh Glacier and 

 up its length to the East Peak. Except for a short rock climb 

 at the summit it was all snow and ice work, but only once was 

 it steep enough to require the chopping of steps or the use of 

 a life-line. 



