Ascent of Mount Moran, Giant of the Tetons 163 



several miles through the forest tangle and up a long steep slope to 

 the cliffs, but we found them quite inhospitable at our point of 

 attack. It was an unusually hot day, and I was not in need of the 

 exercise of carrying a thirty-five-pound pack, but thought it might 

 be pleasant to visit the ice cave of the glacier. In order not to lose 

 elevation we worked our way south across the eastern face of the 

 mountain, crossing troublesome ravines and finally reaching the 

 gorge at a point a few hundred feet below the glacier. Here we left 

 our bags beneath a great rock and ascended to the ice cave, which 

 we entered for a considerable distance. Its portal framed a view of 

 the lake with little islands shimmering far beneath us in the heat. 



Unfortunately, it was after one p.m. and avalanches were descend- 

 ing across the glacier, but we had insufficient provisions to allow us 

 to remain another day, and I was desirous of examining a possible 

 route up the very steep snow-filled couloir. In traversing the slopes 

 I had pointed to a cabin in the distance to the south, and I mentioned 

 that a camp was located several miles beyond, at the southern end of 

 Leigh Lake. There are no trails in the region, but abundant evi- 

 dence of bear and other animals. Leaving my wife to return to our 

 bags, with the remark that she might remain until morning, I started 

 up over the glacier, threading its crevasses and finding delicate work 

 in crossing its yawning bergschrund, whose great chambers of blue 

 and green led to sudden depths which I was not desirous to fathom. 

 As I surmounted the wall above, the avalanches which I had hitherto 

 avoided closed in on my pathway and spread out over the route of 

 my ascent across the glacier. Boulders of many tons in weight came 

 leaping and crashing from the heights, seeming to shake the rocks 

 about me and passing at great speed within a few feet of my pre- 

 carious foothold. As there was no alternative route up the peak in 

 this direction, I went a little farther, concluded that there was not 

 a fair opportunity for mountaineering skill, and reluctantly de- 

 scended across the glacier while a thunder-storm was deadening the 

 roar of the avalanches. 



Deciding to climb the aiguille on the left of the glacier, I worked 

 my way upward in the rain, while I studied the walls of the main 

 peak. Discovering an opportunity to attack the cliffs near the gla- 

 cier without reascending it, I hastened to descend the aiguille and 

 recommenced the climb after four o'clock. Working upward into a 

 concealed ravine, I ascended for several hundred feet to the eastern 



