The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-01-03
CLIMBS ABOVE THE CLOUDS
SAB NAE1IN CONJVA Y,S ASoENT OF
 ILLIlFINTI.
Hhe Hero of the Alps and Himalayas achieves New Triumphs in the Andes Detailed Story.

NsuAASA StOFys
 My previous letter was written to yor
 From the lower slopes of Illlmant. In il
 did not like to confess how little ]
 expected that our enterprise would soor
 pc crowned with success, or that we
 were even on the right track; yet three
 days later we actually stood or the summit of the highest peak, and so at
 talned our ends. It was terribly slow
 work urging the superstitious Indians to carry our loads toward the dreaded fastness of their ill-reverenced noun tain god. A days's march for them was little more than two hours ascent for us. At last, early on September ' we reached the top of the stony gully, whose ascent had taken us three days, and there the real climbing of the great mountain had to begin. We were at 16,7OO feet above sea level.
 A steep wall of rocks rose above us, ahead and on both hands. Over the top or them glittered the edge of a great glacier, whose "seracs" (great masses of ice), falling over from time to time in mighty avalanches, reformed below Into the smaller low-level glacier be- side which we had pitched our second camp. It was, of course impossible to climb rocks down which these ava lanches fell; but a small part of the great wall was not so swept. Accord ingly sent the guides, laden with two heavy packs of stores, to find way up at this point. In two or three hours they were on the snow above, where they disappeared from my view They came down again before nightfall with good news.
 Next day (September 8 at an early hour we packed up all our goods, some to be left behind on the camp terrace, the rest to be carried with us-two tents, sleeping bags, cooking appara- Us and provisions for several days, so that we might hold out against a spell of bad weather. Only two Indians re- mained with us. We were also accom- panied by Senor Cullen, son of the steward of Cotana, to whose influence over the Indians, and power of con- versing with them in their own Ay- mara language, the ultimate success of our expedition was largely due. Zigzag we went, following all convenient lodges, but the scrambling from ledge to ledge was often far from easy; in fact, the whole of this part of the as- ;c ok in, n that of any of the harder Zermatt Noun tains,. such as the Matterhorn, Gabel- horn or Dent Blanche. I stood at the top of each difficult spot, holding forth small silver coins for the Indians to come up and possess. Thus by help of money and the rope we made slow but steady advance. About two-thirds Of the way up the rock wall there came a chimney, thickly covered with ice. It was really the last hard place. But nothing would induce the Indians to attempt it. Their cup of dread had been steadily filling: here it overt1owed. They dropped their loads near the foot of the chimney, turned tail and bolted.
 By hauling the loads up with ropes in difficult places, and by planting en- ormous bundles on the guides heads and backs in easy ones, we at last came out on the snow above, and in few yards found ourselves ad- vancing along the right side of large and easy glacier, with rock slope on our left hand. It was besides these rocks that the guides had chosen the site for our camp the previous day and had left their first loads. We pitched the tents at an altitude of 1S,900 feet with great satisfaction, for it was evil dent that the outworks of the noun tain fortress were now passed; it only remained to deliver the assault on the final peak.
 seno, Cullen, a born mountaineer if ever man was, revelled in the newly revealed world of snow. He seemed to be drinking in a new life. Bred at an altitude ci 12,000 feet, he felt the effects of diminished atmospheric pressure less than any of us. He ran about Ike } chamois on snow and rocks, and seemed anxious to plant his foot on ev cry surrounding eminence and look 1 abroad in every direction.
 Before o'clock next morning we had left camp, and were winding our way upward among great yawning crevass- ss by the light of a candle. Fifteen niles away, across the valley of the La Paz river, another twinkling light was visible, shining through the window If remote farmhouse. That was our ,ole link with the world of men. The night was not cold (only 21 degrees but the snow was as hard IS board, and we made rapid pro- ,ress. Once Senor Cullen fell into a ,revasse, but being roped, no harm was lone. The old moon rising over the snow field rendered the lantern need ess. Two hours and half after start- ng we reached the head of the glacier, he very crest of the Cordilera Real, md looked down an appalling precipfce if at least 14,000 feet into the black lepths of some valley of fertile Youngas. It was still night.
 During all this part of our ascent here had been on our left great the Pico del Indio as I named it), behind which we knew there vas snow plateau, and, beyond that, he highest peaks of Illimani, There vas nothing for it, then, but to climb ,yer this intervening peak, To do so. we must begin by going up the ridge orming the edge of the great preci- ,ice.
 A boss of Ice, about the size of COW, tuck out of the ridge and had to be limbed Steps were cut into it, and We