FIRST ASCENT OF MOUNT HAECKEL 

 By Walter L. Huber 



FOR several years my work has occasioned many visits to Lake 

 Sabrina, a reservoir at the head of the Middle Fork of Bishop 

 Creek. From the first these visits have served to arouse my interest 

 in the wonderful peaks beyond the lake and at the head of this fork 

 of Bishop Creek. From here some of the giants of the Evolution 

 Group — Darwin, Haeckel, and Fiske — present an imposing view. 

 Indeed, their greatest precipices and snow- fields are on this (the 

 Inyo) side. Each visit to Lake Sabrina (named for Mrs. Charles 

 M. Hobbs, wife of the first general manager of The Nevada Cali- 

 fornia Power Company) strengthened my desire to climb Mount 

 Haeckel, which, from this direction, is a very ragged and forbidding 

 pyramid above a rather extensive glacier. 



Finally, when plans were completed for the long-delayed outing 

 of the Sierra Club to the South Fork of San Joaquin River, to the 

 Middle Fork of Kings River, and the crossing of Muir Pass, I 

 joined the party with a hope that somewhere on the trip, which 

 would pass close to the western base of the mountain, I would find 

 an opportunity to try to climb this western side, which I had never 

 seen, but which I believed would afford an easier ascent than did the 

 eastern (or Inyo) face. Naturally I viewed the delays due to packing 

 difficulties early in the outing with some impatience, as I appre- 

 ciated that the time previously allotted to the exploration of Evolu- 

 tion Basin was being thereby reduced. To seek out a feasible route 

 up an unclimbed peak often requires more than one attempt and 

 more than one day's exploration. 



The outing party broke camp on the South Fork of the San Joa- 

 quin River early on the morning of July 13th and made a short 

 march of a few miles to Colby Meadow on Evolution Creek. Twenty- 

 six of the party did not select camp-sites here, but waited for the ar- 

 rival of the pack-trains, and during the afternoon carefully weighed 

 out provisions for a knapsack trip which was to take us on ahead 

 of the main party for a couple of days. We were served first at sup- 

 per, and, after a rather hasty meal, lost no time in shouldering our 



