Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-11-10

alone because it causes snow-slides,
conceals crevassed indications, over
weights packs, and blinds you. The
whole atmosphere becomes utterly un-
distinguishable from the snow under
foot, which, perhaps owing to a Pc
culiarity OF high Alaskan ice fields,
first Motel By the duke of tie Abruzzi.
is refracte1 i-to appalling receptions
of level. On 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 its moraine, is at
from but 1900 to 400 feet. Snow
line, as indicated above, is at from
$500 to 5000 feet. (Tree-line al
though it averages about 2,E0o feet, is
less important factor in climbing)
! This brings us to the prime difficulty
in Alaskan mountaineering. to a 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
cendeG without putting a foot in snow.
Summer snowline 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 TO-
600 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 flrmer. In inter
Tor Alaska, packers and porters are
hardly procurable, even at the high
prices always prevailing in a frontier
country; climber must ship his
horses, or river launch preferably
both), and supplies on 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
| hordes, 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
| 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.N
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 l903-450 miles of trailless terri
tory from Cook Inlet equivalent tc
500 by riyer)-the Alpine problem
ahead remains unique.
| Geographically speaking, the higher
Alaskan peaks are young" that is
the time that has elapsed since theil
maximum uplift was attained has
been short. A similar condition ex
lists in the Andes and in our Rockies
with the result that erosion has not
yet given either of these last theiI
maximum relief But in Alaska, ero
sion has had quite another and op-
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 oil
erosion-has quickly increased the re
lief of the mountains, with mini
mum Of wear upon their mass. This
at first produced valleys deeply filled
with ice, and conditions probably moi
unfaVorable to climbing. But this
state was latterly succeeded by fair
| rapid shrinkage of the glaciers
Nth the result that the mountains
have assumed their present quite
awning aspect of bold nakednes'
combined with great mass.
The southern face of Mt. St Elias
is practically sheer, continuous cliff
nearly $4,000 feet high, which as seer
unobstructed from the Pacific oceaI
/ is unr~ estionably spectacle not RI
vailed elsewhere in the world.
When we stood on Peters glacier
at the northwest face of Mckinley, IA
| 1908. we could almost see its summii
over an ascent as high, and at the
same time hit the foot of that single
wall towering overhead with a snow
ball. And as far as we could tel
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 frs
named, as originally suggested by AL
fred H. Brooks of the geological sur
4 49, 1,-4ft n