hands over a
two-hundred-foot void. I literally glued myself to the face of
the rock, searching frantically for knob or crevasse with my
feet. By sheer luck, my toe found a small projection, and from
here I gradually worked myself up until I came to a broken cleft
in the cliff where it was possible to brace myself and lower the
rope to Dudley. This last ascent had only been fifteen feet, and,
in reality, had taken but three or four minutes, but to me it
seemed hours.

At 7:45, we reached the summit of the south peak. Here we stopped
to look down on Camp Sierra. Long shadows spread their mantle
across the glaciers, and in the east lay the phantom {p.126}
mountain--the shadow of Rainier. A flash of light attracted our
attention. We saw that our companions had been watching our
progress.

[Illustration: A rescue from a crevasse.]

The White glacier route on the east side was first used in 1885 by a
party from Snohomish. The same glacier was traversed by the
Willis-Russell party in 1896. The first woman to make the ascent was
Miss Fay Fuller, of Tacoma, in 1890, over the Gibraltar route.

The north and northwest sides, as I have said, are as yet unconquered.
Some members of the Mountaineers have a theory that the summit can be
reached from Avalanche Camp by climbing along the face of Russell
Peak, and so around to the upper snowfield of Winthrop glacier. They
have seen mountain goats making the trip, and propose to try it
themselves. Whether they succeed or not, this trail will never be
popular, owing to daily landslides in the loose rock of the cliff.

[Illustration: Returning from the summit. The Mountaineers ending a
memorable outing in 1909. Winthrop Glacier in foreground, Sluiskin
Mountains in distance.]

In 1897 and 1905, the Mazama Club of Portland sent parties to the
Mountain, each making the ascent over the Gibraltar route. The Sierra
Club of California was also represented in the latter year by a
delegation of climbers who took the same path to the summit. In 1909,
the Mountaineers Club of Seattle spent several weeks on the Mountain,
entering the National Park by the Carbon trail, camping in Moraine
Park on the north side, exploring Spray Park and the Carbon glacier,
crossing Winthrop glacier to the Wedge, and thence climbing White
glacier to the summit. Many members of the Appalachian Club and
American Alpine Clubs and of European organ