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Star (Christchurch), Issue 9913, 30 July 1910, Page 1

it blew across from the coast, and seemed to lift straight up. "The - route was practically east and west until we turned close to M'Kinley. The trail was rising all the time. Then the trail turned to the south-—to the left of the ridge that we climbed on. Arrived at the Pothole camp we, sank straight down, in the snow (about four feet and a half into the, glacier, and snow in a kind of pothole), where we pitched our tent. The weather was fine. Had no aneroid to determine elevation, but estimate it to be about 2000 or 10,000 feet. ; "This tent we had was the balloonsilk tent. If the four of us were in this tent, which is about eight by ten feet (not more than that), there was plenty of room. We had two caribon hides for beds and mattresses., for fcur of us. They are the clear quill to put on the ice of snow. .Pete had a mountain sheep skin sleeping bag as well, and besides that we had three robes in all for the four of us —one of them was not much good—and a piece of canvas to throw under all. You want to be sure and keep the snow and ice from thawing underneath you. We had no 'lisnomfort in sleeping—none at all. M'Gonagell and I each had a pillow, out Bill Taylor was never. known to carry a pillow; neither was the Swede. By Mar-ch 15 they were- 15,000 feet tiPi making slow but sure progress. Then a big storm came up and they had plenty of snow. Cold weather was what they wanted, however, because a warm spell would have caused a thaw and made soft travelling. On the glacier they often tunnelled into the snow to make a camping-place. Frequently tliey had had to cover the-ground twice in order to carry up' the supplies, and once Taylor, who had gone back in this way, was missing for about a week, having been, delayed by storms. THE LAST ASCENT. * The final climb was a strenuous matter. They reached the top. of one peak of the double summit, but found no rocks suitable for i cairn-building, and they determined to scale _ the other peak.. At this time, supplies had run Very short. " April 3.—This morning before daylight we clinibed to the saddle between AL'Kinley's two peaks, dragging the flagpole with us. ; \Ve had little difficulty in reaching the saddle, as the boys had been there previously and had; nut steps, which made the ascent easier. Once there we proceeded to cross the glacier between the two summits, to the north summit, where tho rocks were.

" The distance from the left, or coast summit, to tho right, or north summit (zigzagging as we had to go), must be about three miles, but it is a hard matter to estimate distances "up in that air. When we reached the northern summit we found plenty of rocks there, and we erected a* monument that will endure as long as the top of the mountain does, although the rocks were hard for us to dig out at that altitude. ' "The snow filled in , between the rocks, and they were frozen together, but we dug down fifteen inches into, the rocks until we had found a solid spot, where there will bo no question but that the flagpole will stand, and into it wo stuck that flagpole. We stamped * : t in, and filled in with rocks and built rocks up around it in a substantial, time-enduring monument to a height of fifteen inches above the surface, so that the flagpole is anchored in fchirtv inches of solid rock.

The flagpole is a straight, seasoned spruce sapling full 4in at the butt, and tapering symmetrically to full 2&m at the top, and is full 14ft long. The flag attached to it is 6ft by 12ft in size, is an American flag erected by four Americans of Welsh, Scotch, Canadian and Swedish descent, and on tho flag, written thereon in ink, is the | namo "E. W. Griffin. 5 ' To the flagI pole wo. attached four guy ropes, each anchored to the rocks. Tho flag was raised at 3.25 p.m. April 3, ly.to. A picture of the flag and pole, with Pete Andersen standing by them, was then taken. THE DESCENT, At this point the diary ends, but tlie story in Mr Lloyd's own words is continued in an interview, which will be read with not less interest than his realistic narrative from day to day. •' Now, about that trip down from the north summit," ho remarked, when lie had recalled somo of tho fortunes of the party. "It was ten o'clock at night when we got to our Tunnel Camp, and wo stayed all the night of r,lie 3rd and loft there on tho morning of tho 4th. Wo loft the blue tent there, and a pole to hold the ridgepole. up, and the 'ridge-pole, and a double coal oil stovo and about a gallon and a < half or two gallons of coal oil, and shovels; and shovels along the trail, too; and a few smaLl cans there in the tunnel. " Wo had set 100 stakes between tho Tunnel Camp and tho summit, and 550 (about) from the Tunnel-Camp down to the glacier to mark our trail to tho Glacier Camp, and wo travelled some on the down trail, making the Willow Camp that night. You can't make any possible headway over that glacier unless you have tested every foot of the trail before you. And you will find I am telling the truth. You must probe every step you tako there. " Wo went over lots of places you could travel with snow-shoes on, but where, if you stuck your pole into the apparently solid face it would go clean through. Where such crevices wore largo we would bridge them over, but the little ones we did not mind. You can't fall down a crevasse that is only a foot or so wide when ycu have snowslioes on, or even if you do fall in a small one your pole will fall across the .vails anrl hold you up if you carry i*" in the right position. " Considering that we left tho summit on tho afternoon of tho 3rd, stopping at tho Tunnel Camp that night, and starting on the morning .of the ith down the trail, reaching Willow Camp that night, you will see that in iess than a day and a half we covered the distance going down which it had j ; ;akon ua over a month to cover going j up. Wa travelled light, coming down,'

having no grub and not much of _ a camp outfit, and we made good time )ver our blazed and secured trail. " The sth we made it to M'Kinley River. The snow was deep, but it was a fine day, and we had what we would rail good travelling. At M'Kinley River we left the big tent, and a stove tt the Brooks Camp. " April 6 we cut across country from M'Kinley River to Glenn Camp, and Tiado it in 4hr 45min. There wo had ihe first big feed we had had since we could remember. Pete's. toe was pretty sore, but we were all in good spirits «.nd satisfied with the results of. our trip. "On April 7 wo stayed in Glenn Camp all day, getting ready to separate, as I was goinrr on to Fairbanks alone with a team of four dogs, while the other boys returned to our camp to work*. We found that our actual travelling time from the summit of M'Kinley to Glenn Gamp was 21hr 50min. " April 8 I started for Fairbanks alone. I made over forty miles that day—from Glenn to the twelve-mile on the Toklat; nest day made Fisher's, thirty miles up the Nenana River; next day made Lloyd's, five miles from Neiiana'Post; and the next made Fair-banks-—it was only a matter of riding behind the dogs." _ Tlius did the leader of the expedition again reach civilisation with the surprising story of the result of the sporting effort to conquer Mount M'Kinley.