THE WORLD'S HIGH PEAKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19508, 11 December 1926, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE WORLD'S HIGH PEAKS.

MOUNTAINEERING THRILLS. * ASCENT OF MOUNT BAKER. STORY BY A LADY CLIMBER. PACIFIC NORTH-WEST " GIANT." Tho high peaks of the new world have been rapidly conquered in the last three years, says the Vancouver correspondent of the Herald. Last year, Mount Logan, highest of Canadian peaks, was scaled successfully. Now comes news of the first ascent by a woman of tho north-east route of Mountßaker, in northern Washington, the mecea of thousands of tourists ol: the western states and Western Canada. Miss Dorothy E. Pilley and Mr. W. A. Richards, both of the Alpine Club of England, have just mado the ascent., accompanied 'by Mr. Ben Thompson, o.f the Mount Baker Forestry Patrol. Named after Lieutenant Baker, when Captain Vancouver was sailing through the Straits of Juan de Fuca, this giant of the Pacific North-west, a little over 14,000 ft. high, definitely suggests the volcano—a heavier but not less soaring Fujiyama. To Miss Pilley not even Mont Blanc, from the hills above Grenoble, or Mont Bosa, from the cathedral of Milan, famous as these sights are among European landscapes, have anything to boast over Mount Baker, 70 miles from Vancouver, and about 100 miles from Seattle, the commercial capital of Washington. The route nsually followed is via tho liittle village of Glacier adn Heliotrope Eidge, past crevasses that, although stupendous in themselves, offer no insuperable difficulty. Walking some times along a. ten-foot causeway of ice between canyons whose vertical sides plunge down* wards : for hundreds of feet, sometimes zig-zagging between narrower fissures, and then making good progress across irn-

mense :;lop2s of innocent snow, one comes to what is called the Saddle and the extensive plateau. Old-Time Pathetic Tragedy. The slopes near, the Saddle were once the scene of an accident as pathetic as any in the annals of mountaineering. Two old-timo prospectors were using the mountain as the easiest way over the Baker Lake region. In the days before trails were in existence, doubtlessly it was a relatively easy way, though not a safe one for ill-equipped men, unfamiliar with the* dangers of glacier travel. What might Only too well have been expected happened. One of them broke through the surface of snow covering a concealed crevasse and fell into the engulfing darkness below. Injured and trapped beyond any possibility of escape, he.was yet able to speak to his companion above, to give him !i List message to his wife and family, and bid him make his solitary way back to safety. , Many unroped inexperienced persons disport themselves on the glaciers of Mount Baker, and it is surprising that more, such . fatalities have not occurred. Even a highly experienced mountaineer is not immune fi'-om these dangers, S3 the death, through a similar accident, in 1913, of Mr. C. P. Bishop, president ot the British Columbia Mountaineers showed tody too clearly. 1 • Miss Pilley's Narrative. Describing her ascen£, which was made from the Austin Pass, Miss Pilley says:— •"* Leaving Heather Meadows, the scene this year of an intense activity as the new, convenient and delightfully situated Hotel nears completion, you follow an'easy trail, and make your way over several small glaciers to a point known as Kaiser's Camp, where the presence oi firewood enables you to spend a comfortable night. From there the whole route of to-morrow's ascent lies in plain view. " Below you a tortuously riven glacier fills the valley. Beyond, the open .snow slopes rise, broken only by the shadowy cross-cross markings of crevasses tb the clear edge of the summit plateau. They are divided by a long, low ridge that falls toward you, crowned by a point, Pumice Stone Pinnacle, which, at this distance oi r several miles, looks unimportant, and marked at its ioot by a hollow bare space ia the glacier, which, when you approach it, proves to be a moderately alive crater, puffing out whiffs of steam and vapour, and cidtted with deposits of sulphur. • Previous Party's Dl-Lucfe.

" Our intention had been to go by "way of the cratef, but, on the way, we came across a line of faint tracks, left, we knew, by a party of the week before. The party had failed, and we knew the reason. An impassable rift in tho glacier stretching, it was reported, right across the whole face of the mountain, had barred their furthe , progress. We knew that a siimilar failure might easily be the result if we followed them, but somehow, on that perfect morning, with the swelling, rounded steps of the glacier beautifully dappled with blue shadow and sparkling in the, early sunlight with a myriad stars of diamond light, tho attraction of the snow Was irresistible. So, risking failure, we determined to

go and look at the reported impasse. Up we wound, halting only a little once, .where a little pool of water, caught in a cleft of blue and gleaming ice, beckoned tts to lunch. After gaining a great height, we came to a point where another line of returning tracks could be seen branching off toward the rocks on our right.- We must, we knew, be near the difficulty. We breasted a short slope of steeper snow, and thero it was. / A Delighiilul Anti-Climax.

A chasm., fifty feet across, with vertical walls of pure white ice, cut like an enormous trench across our path. It seemed unending to right and to left. Here, tEe tracks which we had been following danced about over a small area and then turned downward again. The only possibility seemed to be offered by a weakness 'in the opposing wall some hundred: feet to our left. To cut steps up such a. wall would be a task requiring •at least two or throe hours, if it were practicable, and this was doubtful. A really formidable work of excavation would be necessary. However, it seemed Worth while to look closer. So we wandered up to a point to the left, to survey ■ the obstacle to better advantage. The result was a delightful anti-climax. Less than seventy yards beyond our former limit of vision, the great impassable chasm suddenly narrowed to nothing Just a'fc the point where it ceased, a brother chasm, even larger, opened, but between them, athwart the obstacle, lay a neat connecting gangway, about as wide as a garden path, *nd just as easy to follow. A short detour soon put us upon it. We felt sorry for i.he preceding party, when we reflected that tney had been defeated by a distance corae ten feet only in their line of vision." End of the Ascent, Easy progress followed, until the climbers came ■to the last pinches. A light fall of snow the previous week made , S°mg powdery, and the snow had to ? d , awn solidly. At the rate hundred feet an hour, they reduced wall wfe C betv ; een thera and tbe last wall, v>hich waj the tallest, sharp TYli<?s Pillev «« I ,• 1)0 tak cn," says i»,led, long IxWaS, pSw Eto«. lj,at See for a Mta;

the snow improved again. It grew deeper and moist enough to bind under the foot if carefully and repeatedly trodden down. How the heart lightens at the last prospect. The sky seems more cheerful. The distance shrinks. Fresh energy wells up in mind and body. Anon wo were there." As the mountaineers crossed tho low belt of rocks in the snow below the plateau, they found, with some astonishment, a long, thin piece of sash-line, tied to the rocks, and hanging in a loose end. It looked thin and frail as though it might have been there for many years. " The first party, and probably the only other party to climb the mountain by our route, descended in their own tracks," says Miss Pilley. " This was in 1906. No doubt they fixed this piece of rope to aid them in their descent. To think of it swaying there aloft, on that unvisited slope in the winds for twenty years gives tho mind an odd and not unpleasant thrilL Thig vestige of humanity seemed to add something to the wildness of the mountain, rather. than to detract from it. " We had anticipated a cold wind in the final stages, and now, as we mado tho last, few steps and swung ourselves over the sharp ledge on to comparatively level ground, it was a pleasant surprise to find only a moderato breeze blowing and the mist enshrouding us shot through and through with sunlight. A little later we stood on the dome-shaped summit, looking out in all directions over a broken wilderness of cloud masses, pierced irregularly with black outlines of lower hills."