did men abandon as cheerfully stuff that had been
freighted as laboriously as we abandoned our surplus baggage at the
eighteen-thousand-foot camp. We made a great pile of it in the lee of
one of the ice-blocks of the glacier--food, coal-oil, clothing, and
bedding--covering all with the wolf-robe and setting up a shovel as a
mark; though just why we cached it so carefully, or for whom, no one of
us would be able to say. It will probably be a long time ere any others
camp in that Grand Basin. While yet such a peak is unclimbed, there is
constant goading of mountaineering minds to its conquest; once its top
has been reached, the incentive declines. Much exploring work is yet to
do on Denali; the day will doubtless come when all its peaks and ridges
and glaciers will be duly mapped, but our view from the summit agreed
with our study of its conformation during the ascent, that no other
route will be found to the top. When first we were cutting and climbing
on the ridge, and had glimpses, as the mists cleared, of the glacier on
the other side and the ridges that arose from it, we thought that
perhaps they might afford a passage, but from above the appearance
changed and seemed to forbid it altogether. At times, almost in despair
at the task which the Northeast Ridge presented, we would look across at
the ice-covered rocks of the North Peak and dream that they might be
climbed, but they are really quite impossible. The south side has been
tried again and again and no approach discovered, nor did it appear from
the top that such approach exists; the west side is sheer precipice; the
north side is covered with a great hanging glacier and is devoid of
practicable slopes; it has been twice attempted. Only on the northeast
has the glacier cut so deeply into the mountain as to give access to the
heights.

June 8th was Sunday, but we had to take advantage of the clear, bright
day to get as far down the mountain as possible. The stuff it was still
necessary to pack made good, heavy loads, and we knew not what had
happened to our staircase in our absence.

[Sidenote: The Record]

Having said Morning Prayer, we left at 9.30 A. M., after a night in
which all of us slept soundly--the first sound sleep some had enjoyed
for a long time. Contentment and satisfaction are great somnifacients.
The Grand Basin was glorious in sunshine, the peaks crystal-clear
against a cloudless sky, the huge blocks of ice thrown down by the
earthquake and sc