Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-11-04

weights packs, and blinds you. The
whole atmosphere becomes utterly I'M
/ distinguishabIe from the snow under
DOT. which, perhaps owing to a pc
culiarity of high Alaskan ice fields
1 first noted by the duke Of the Abruzzi,
Is refracted into appalling receptions
Of level. On a mountain absolutely IN
explored, the normal persistence OF
! such state may be imagined.
And in interior Alaska, glacier-line,
which means the altitude at which an
/ ice river dies upon it's moraine, is at
! from but 1900 to 300 feet. Snow
/ line, as indicated above, is at from
! $500 to 5000 feet. (Tree-line al
, though it averages about $500 feet, is
a less important factor in climbing
This brings US to the prime difficulty
in Alaskan mountaineering, to CON
dition with which even the highest
Himalayas cannot compare; the great
distance between actual" base and
summit and the great perpendicular
relief presenting truly and wholly Al
pine conditions.
Mt Aconcagua (Southern Andes),
about $4,000 feet high, has been as
cended without putting a foot in snow
Summer snoWIine in the Himalayas
is often higher than $4,000 feet, which
would require upon Mt. Everest, for
instance, the highest mountain in the
world, an Alpine perpendicular Of 49,
900 feet to be overcome.
Mt. Mckinley demands $4,000 feet
from snoWline to its 10000 foot sum-
nit.
Moreover the high Alpine foots OF
the Asian and South American noun
tains are more easily reached than
the lower Alaskan bases; pack ami
mails and porters are cheaper and
more plentiful, because settlements
near the mountains are more numer-
GUS; and trails are frmer. In inter
iOr Alaska, packers and pOrters are
hardly procurabIe, even at the high
prices always prevailing in a frontier
country; a climber must ship his
horses, or river launch preferably
both), and supplies on a weeks ocean
voyage, only to encounter glacial
river navigation at once risky and
difficult, and trails notorious for their
softness to say nothing Of mosquito
hOTdes, denser and more vicious than
those of any tropical Or arctic lands,
Of flies that in July would make the
very existence of cattle impossible.
And having done all this, you would
have to travel over many miles Of
glacier ice before reaching the actual
base of a first class Alaskan noun
tain. The Duke of Abruzzi had to
cover nearly forty miles Of the Nal
aspina glacier before beginning actu-
ally to climb Mt. st. Elias, and Dr..
Cooks distance on his second trip to
Mckinley, from where he started up
the Tokashitna glacier, to the actual
mass Of the mountain, was scarcely
less than this.
Bound to Be Climbed Some Time.
None Of these difficulties, of course,
are insurmountable; if Mckinley has
not yet been climbed it will be, as
surely as the north pole was to be
discovered. But once arrived at its
actual base. whether by DR.. Cooks
second and shorter route, or by ours
of 1903-450 miles of trailless terri
tory from Cook Inlet equivalent to
800 by rtver)-the Alpine problem
ahead remains unique.
Geographically speaking, the higher
AT,zT-,, ,,,oIyr 'Exrp11D that is
| the time that has elapsed since their
maximum upIift was attained has
! been short. A similar condition eX-
lists in the Andes and in our Rockies,
with the result that erosion has not
vet given either of these last their
maximum relief. But in Alaska, ero-
sion has had quite another and OPP
posite effect.
The intense glaciation in the
moister and colder north-and glacia-
ton effects a faster wearing away oil
mountain masses than other forms OF
erosion-has quickly increased the re
! lief of the mountains, with a mini
mum Of wear upon their mass. This
at first produced valleys deeply filled
with ice, and conditions probably not
unfavorabIe to climbing. But this
state was latterly succeeded by a fair
" rapid shrinkage of the glaciers,
with the result that the mountains
have assumed their present quite
awning aspect of bold nakedness
combined with great mass.
81 q :
! is practically a sheer, continuous cliff
nearly $4,000 feet high, which as seen
unobstructed from the Pacific ocean
/ is unc~ estionably a spectacle not RI
vailed elsewhere in the, world.
When we stood on Peters glacier
at the northwest face of Mckinley, in
1903, we could almost see its summit
over an ascent as high, and at the
same time hit the foot Of that single
4 wall towering overhead with a snow
/ ball. And as far as we could tell
after circling the mountain, similar
/ cliffs existed everywhere upon its
southeast face. Only at its southwest
and northeast extremities were these
conditions modified, and upon the first
named, as originally suggested by Al
fred H. Brooks of the geological sur
vey. we made our attempt, with the
result stated. DR.. Cook declared that
he made his successful ascent by the
other (northeasD extremity OF the
mountain the general contour OF
which is, as a whole, roughly cuoica
and oblong, being from geological