The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1892-08-12
TO THE SUMMIT OF MT. HOOD.

reached snow Thursday afternoon, July
2Sth, where we located permanent camp
on the south y" An
! hour or two till sunset We gathered
straw berries and flowers and rocks until
supper was announced. After supper
we all went to the timber line to see the
sun set. The evening was perfectly clear
and the sun was double its usual appearance
in size as it entered the haze over the
horizon; soon its disk entered the sea and
was gone. The wa3er of the ocean, was
plainly visible even with the naked eye.
This was weird, sad scene. We retired
early to bed hoping to get good nights
rest for our climb on the morrow. But no
one found sleep till far into the night for the
| mosquitoes We're legion. We arose. at $3.50
aud by 4:3O were ready for the climb. The
| summit Sc il sublimity six mi es from our
camp six thousand feet above us. We
blacked our faces with cork, put on colored
spectacles and wore double yelling as pro.
| lection against the SUM-.
| Each with flask of water, pocket full
| of lunch and an alpenstock started out with
| enthusiastic zee for the top of the world.
| What ctur- we were then contrasted
| with the one that returned to camp in the
evening.
/ The sun just rising above the eastern
mountains cast a perfect shadow of Mt.
Hood upon the western sky. Thi will long
| be remembe sight. Now we
| began to feel that it be a test of
endurance. / wa difficult to breathe and
we began to have fears lest we might not
endure. When we had gone about two
miles one of our company unable to breathe
was compelled to give up. We left her
lying in she sun upon the rocks. Without
special incident all the others reached
| Crater Rock by eleven o'clock. This is an
actual real crater and Mt. Hood is now a
smoking volcano. Crater Rock is
| as large as the carriage factory and is burst
ing wi heat and smoking continuously
from it's base and the cracks along the sides.
The smell Of sulphur is sickening and two
of our company became so sick from it as to
be compelled to give up further climbing.
Two others are so exhausted that they re-
fuse to go further. This leaves five still de-
termined to reach the top. But the dam
gerous part is coming and our hearts quail
as we look up to where we are compelled
to climb. We now use a rope and fasten
| long screws in our shoes. Rev. I. G..
| Knots of Portland is chosen leader, Miss
Alice Evans of Portland is placed next, the
writer next, then Mss Della B. Howard of
Portland and last Prof. H. Sneak of Philo'
math. After leavin Crater rock we have
yet two miles distance to climb. First
snow and ice reaching from Crater rock to
the great crevasse. It is SO sharp and
steep that we compelled to walk with
one foot on either side, and up grade OF
45 degrees. If we were to slip oft to the
east we would slide a mile at least, if to the
west we would slide half a mile into the
crater. 1t tried our nerves.
The crevasse is great crack in the
glacier. Half of tire glacier has Slid down
the mountain and the other half has lodged.
The crvasse is from 10 to 80 feet wide and
from 10 to 200 feet deep. 1t is magnifi'
cent view. Great icicies hang on either
side and great caves make rugged its chasms,
making it more than grand. To cross the
erevasse we must turn half mile to the
west where we cross over snow drift. We
are compelled to jump four feet over
crack reaching into the crevasse Here our
rope served us well. Once over the crevasse
the great danger is from falling rocks
These came plunging down the glacier con
tinually from the overhanging precipices
One rock the size OF mans head came
crashing on bee line for us ; we succeeded
in dodging it and it passed US without hur
except grazing the leg of our rear companion
Now one steep dangerous climb remains
When within 200 feet of the summit WI
are compelled to cut steps in the ice ane
the grade is steep; at the angle OF about Z;
degrees we dare not look down for the sigh
is appalling, we dare not look up for the
sight is fearful We look only at our fee
more on one at time. On reaching th'
summit we found it to be l:45 o'clock. On
of our party almost tainted from exhaustion
The view from the summit is one that mus
|
the Columbia river in it's myriad winding
and beyond it Mt. Helens, Mt. Rainier am
Mt Adams and host of smaller mountains
On the east of the slope of the Cascades am
beyond, the vast plains and desert of East
ern Oregon. On the south Mt. Jefferson
. the Three Sisters and Snow Butte. On tn
r west the Willamette valley, Mary's pea
q and the ocean. The sight is appalling. w
j stood in the glaring sunlight and all belo'
! us looked like night it was SO dark, and tn
( silvery clouds far below Us looked like da
: on the upper side and were night beneath
o The air was SO rare and pure. The win
8 blew a perfect hurricane. We wer
!, drenching wet and almost frozen. So tn
r sensations on the summit are to us now
fearful memory. There is no word in til
:. English language that describes the seen,
!, The best word is this, appalling" 81
members of the Alpine club of Portlan
!, were on the summit the day before. The
g were unable to find the copper box with tt
records. It must have been covered wit
4 snow then. We found the box and with OF
alpenstocks dug it out Of the ice and vii
double pride registered our names, and ne
!. by we found little tin bucket left the