THE WORLD'S HIGHEST ALTITUDES 



509 



their blanket of ice and snow the loftier 

 summits of true alpine domes. Yet better 

 evidence of our vocation is the distinc- 

 tion won by our fellow-countrymen and 

 countrywomen in the most noteworthy 

 climbing. Most of these eminent climb- 

 ers are enrolled in the American Alpine 

 Club (1902), a society of limited mem- 

 bership. 



The Far West, and especially the Pa- 

 cific slope of our continent, offers a much 

 better field ; yet even here, at least in the 

 United States proper, distinctly alpine 

 features are for the greater part absent. 

 That vigorous societies have arisen here 

 is not strange : the Sierra Club in San 

 Francisco (1892) and the Mazamas 

 (1894) in Portland, Oregon. The for- 

 mer finds a grand field for rock climbing 

 in the High Sierra ; the latter makes ex- 

 hilarating and inspiring snow excursions 

 to the summits of the extinct volcanoes 

 of the Cascade Range. These beautiful 

 snow-covered domes, Shasta (14,440), 

 Hood (11,225), Saint Helens (10,000), 

 Adams (12,470), and Rainier (14,394), 

 present no serious technical difficulties, as 

 may be judged from the fact that large 

 parties of thirty to forty, of both sexes, 

 not infrequently make their summits. 

 This is not true of Mount Baker 

 (10,827), which a selected party of 

 Mazamas found almost beyond their pow- 

 ers in 1907. Moreover, the first ascent 

 of Rainier in 1876 by General Hazard 

 Stevens and his companion, both un- 

 trained in alpinism, was a noteworthy 

 climb. 



The first American work on mountain- 

 eering was Clarence King's finely told 

 story of climbs in California, undertaken 

 in the service of the State Geological 

 Survey.* 



The story grows exciting as the heroes 

 cross some fearfully narrow arete ; yet 

 bolder climbs have been made since, until 

 nearly every important peak has been 

 scaled. Mount Ritter (13,156) was as- 

 cended by John Muir in the early seven- 

 ties; Mount Whitney (14,499), the high- 



* Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada. 

 Boston, Osgood & Co., 1864. New edition. 

 Scribners, 1901. 



est summit in the United States proper, 

 by Bengole, Lucas, and Johnson in 1873, 

 and Mount Abbott (13,700), whose "for- 

 bidding summit ... is one of the 

 only two great Sierra peaks which has 

 not yet been ascended," (so wrote Pro- 

 fessor J. N. Le Conte in 1907,*) was con- 

 quered in 1908 by that leading authority 

 on the Sierra Nevada, to whose camera 

 we owe our picture of its precipitous 

 upper slopes. 



While ascents in the Rocky Mountains, 

 at least south of Montana, lack in inter- 

 est, owing to the fact that even the most 

 repellent summits usually have a very 

 simple way of access, nevertheless the 

 ascent of the Grand Teton (13,800) in 

 Wyoming, made by Messrs Langford and 

 Stevenson in 1872, counts among the 

 most notable climbs of the early days, and 

 there are doubtless some fine rock climbs 

 yet to be made in the less-visited Sangre 

 de Cristo Range, and perhaps in the Elk 

 Mountains of Colorado. 



The volcanoes of Mexico deserve men- 

 tion less for their difficulty than for their 

 altitude, since Ixtaccihuatl (16,500), 

 Popocatepetl (17,660), and Orizaba 

 (18,240) count among the highest peaks 

 of North America. As with most moun- 

 tains of their class, the demand is prin- 

 cipally upon lungs and legs, the use of 

 hands not necessarily entering into the 

 problem, and each of the party may wan- 

 der "at his sweet will." There being a 

 sulphur mine at the crater of Popocate- 

 petl, ascents may be assumed to be some- 

 what frequent. The "White Lady" of 

 the more unpronounceable name is less 

 accessible.! In the case of all these peaks 

 it is of course difficult to say quis primus. 



THE! CANADIAN ALPS 



It was with the opening of the Cana- 

 dian Pacific Railway that a true American 

 Switzerland was made accessible and a 



* Alpina Americana No. 1, The High Sierras 

 of California, Philadelphia, 1907. 



t An interesting account of a recent ascent 

 made by Mr Charles A. Gilchrist (A. A. C), of 

 Philadelphia, may be found in Appalachia, Vol. 

 X. Ascents of Popocatepetl and Orizaba, by 

 A. E. Douglass and W. A. Cogshall, were de- 

 scribed in Vol. VIII of the same journal. 



