Sierra Club Bulletin 



somewhat circumscribed by the main peak and the rocky pin- 

 nacle which bounded the saddle in the other direction. So, 

 after a short period of rest, we set ourselves to investigate the 

 possibility of ways and means to transport ourselves to the top- 

 most spire, which towered some six or seven hundred feet 

 above us. There, if we could but reach it, we might regale our 

 eyes with an almost unbounded panorama of rugged mountains. 

 At the first sight our chances of reaching the top appeared to 

 be very doubtful. A rocky depression indented the main ridge 

 toward the summit, but this grew rapidly steeper until, as some 

 one said, it was so perpendicular that it leaned over backward. 

 However, that appeared to be our only chance ; so we tackled 

 it, hoping to solve each difficulty as it presented itself, and de- 

 termined not to turn back until we had investigated every pos- 

 sibility. For a Httle it was easy enough; then the bottom of 

 the depression became a mere crevice and almost perpendicu^ 

 lar, and elbows and knees were called into play. A fat man 

 would have surely stuck fast ; but as the leader was the heaviest 

 of the party, the others knew if he could wriggle through they 

 could follow. Finally the crevice petered out entirely, and we 

 faced a blank wall of rock with no ledges or crevices to offer 

 holds for feet or hands. However, investigation revealed a 

 slight ledge traversing to the right, which, if successfully nego- 

 tiated, seemed to lead to further possibilities above. Just here 

 two of the party, who were married men, decided that their re- 

 sponsibilities toward their respective families outweighed their 

 desire to set foot on the topmost pinnacle of Mount Hum- 

 phreys, and they turned back. Their decision was doubtless 

 wise, as the difficulties rather increased from that point. By 

 the exercise of caution the before-mentioned ledge was safely 

 passed by the leader, only to have new and as difficult problems 

 present themselves at each successive advance. But by travers- 

 ing again and again on narrow ledges where the missing of a 

 finger-hold or the slip of a foot might mean a permanent rest- 

 ing-place some two thousand feet below; by utilizing cracks 

 and projecting knobs to lift oneself by sheer muscular power; 

 by crawling along knife-edges where it looked equally easy to 

 fall a few thousand feet to the glacier on one side or into a lake 

 even farther below in Humphrey Basin on the other — by these 



