258 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



having made an overnight camp at Murphy Creek on Lake Tenaya. 

 Two days later the second main side-trip, over a hundred strong, 

 left the Soda Springs for the Banner-Ritter country. The first night 

 we spent at the Lyell base camp on Lyell Fork. Our sleeping- 

 quarters were on a slope about thirty feet above the commissary, 

 where the reasonably level space was so limited that in the women's 

 camp individual camp-sites were all merged into one, and we lay 

 down with our bags almost touching one another. Sleep that night 

 was also limited — at any rate, for those who were to climb Lyell. 

 The stars were still shining when the call sounded. Mr. Colby led 

 the party, which included a moving-picture outfit, and numbered 

 over eighty ; sixty-seven eventually reached the summit. 



The route led up over wooded slopes and past tiny lakes, on the 

 shores of which the beautiful cassiope grew in great masses, and to 

 the moraine at the foot of the snow-covered glacier. The chimney 

 usually taken was dangerous for so large a party, owing to snow 

 conditions, and so the ascent was made by a more western chute, 

 which proved quite easy to climb, although there were so many loose 

 rocks that it was necessary to take some care to avoid knocking them 

 dovm on those below. 



Among the barren rocks within a few feet of the summit were 

 numerous patches of Polemonium eximium, a brave little blue flower 

 that makes its home on the rugged peaks of the Sierra above timber- 

 line. The party remained about an hour on the peak. At a point 

 farther along the slope of the mountain a short descent on rather 

 loose rock brought us to a steep snow-slide, down which everyone 

 tobogganed. 



From the moraine at the foot of the glacier some returned to the 

 Soda Springs camp. The party which the writer joined crossed the 

 stream at the head of Lyell Fork and climbed to Donohue Pass, a 

 bare rock-strewn gap above timber-line, from which the trail to the 

 beautiful camp-site on Thousand Island Lake was reasonably clear. 

 The majority of the Lyell party got to camp in time for supper, but 

 the last stragglers arrived at two a.m. One party of twelve camped 

 out overnight at Rush Creek, where Mr. McDuffie provided them 

 with food and some blankets. A huge fire, which was kept burning 

 all night, made up for missing sleeping-bags. 



The club remained two nights at its camp on Thousand Island 

 Lake in order to facilitate matters for those who were to climb Ritter. 



