The suburban citizen., 1900-12-01

rience in fighting a storm above the
clouds in the Front Range of mount
aims in Northern Colorado. 1t was
ten years ago, and he had but one
companion in his adventure, Mr.. Yer
non H. Kellogg, now a professor in
Stanford University.
Despite the difficulties of the way
and the surrounding storm, we made
good progress upward, and in half an
hour turned to the left and began
working along the side Of the mount
ain.
Here our trials began in earnest
The storm was upon us in all its fury.
The wind blew almost a hurricane
and the air was so filed with sleet and
fine snow that it was impossible 70
see more than twenty yards in any dl-
rection There would be an occasion
al lull in the tumult, when we could
take in our surroundings for mo-
ment, but another cloud would en-
velop us and fill the air with driving
torrents Of frozen mist.
Hour after hour we struggled on
with the nervous, frantic energy born
OF desperation.
The rocks and snow were covered
with ice thin as tissue paper, which
caused many a hard fall, and made
every step a source of peril. The
force of the wind, too, threw us down
continually, and we were bruised from
head to foot. If we had carried steel
pointed poles instead of guns, they
would have been of great service; the
latter were now as much hindrance
as help, though we were soon to find
/ them useful
Our hands and faces suffered terri
bly, from the bitter cold, and the for
mer were so numb that we dropped
our guns repeatedly. Hair and cloth
ing were matted with ice like a coat of
mail We realized that our progress
was very slow, as we had not yet
reached the great snow-feld extending
] from timber-line to the summit, the
base Of which we had crossed in as
cending the gorge. On and on we
staggered, feeling our way over the
slippery surface, and becoming weak
er every moment from the hard strug-
| gle in the rarefied air Of the mountain
tops.
While stumbling over a mass Of ice
covered boulders, l heard an excited
| exclamation and looking up, saw Kel.
lOgg sink down behind a rock which
afforded a slight shelter from the Icy
! blast
When l reached him he looked up
and said, "Old boy, this is the worst
box we were ever in. / guess we're
at the end Of our roper Both realized
that the situation was desperate al
most hop less. There was no sign Of
abatement of the storm, and weak
ened and enfeebled as we were by the
long struggle, if we should not be able
to cross the steep snow-field when we
reached it, death from exhaustion and
exposure would be matter Of only a
few hours.
We dreaded to think Of that snow
field, remembering how steep il had
looked as we gazed upward from the
bottom that morning, and knowing
the condition it must be in now with
the newly formed ice on the surface.
However, il was thought best to rest
short time, and l lay down beside
Kellogg
After a rest Of about fifteen minutes
we resumed the struggle, weak rs be-
fore and much colder but we had re-
covered our wind, hard thing to keep
at this altitude.
it was now 4 o'clock-ten hours
since we left camp, and four since the
struggle with the storm began. The
battle for life could not last much
longer.
Slowly and painfully we pushed for
ward, crawling on all-fours most Of
the time chewed savagely on a
piece Of tough grouse, the only re-
mains of our dinner
Would we ever reach the nOw-ield? ?
A horrible thought crossed my mind.
What IL we had lost the direction and
were going the wrong way? l did not
mention my fears to Kellogg, What
was the use?
Every few moments we sank down
on our faces to recover our breath. At
such tines 1 found my mind wander
ing, and could not think clearly. Kel-
logg made several remarks without
any particular meaning, and his face
had vacant, sullen look. Almost the
last ray Of hope was gone. There was
no complaining, no whining, only a
sort Of mad desperation which made
US resolve to keep moving to the last
Finally, through rift in the clouds
not fifty yards ahead, we saw the
spotless white OF the long-looked-for'
snowfeld.
! With a feeble shout we pushed for.
ward but when we reached the edge