Although It Was Now Twenty Minutes Past Three And The Days Were
Getting Short, I Thought That By Rapid Climbing I Could Reach The
Summit Before Sunset, In Time To Get A General View And A Few Pencil
Sketches, And Make My Way Back To The Steamer In The Night.
Mr.
Young, one of the missionaries, asked permission to accompany me,
saying that he was a good walker and climber and would not delay me
or cause any trouble.
I strongly advised him not to go, explaining
that it involved a walk, coming and going, of fourteen or sixteen
miles, and a climb through brush and boulders of seven thousand feet,
a fair day's work for a seasoned mountaineer to be done in less than
half a day and part of a night. But he insisted that he was a strong
walker, could do a mountaineer's day's work in half a day, and would
not hinder me in any way.
"Well, I have warned you," I said, "and will not assume
responsibility for any trouble that may arise."
He proved to be a stout walker, and we made rapid progress across a
brushy timbered flat and up the mountain slopes, open in some places,
and in others thatched with dwarf firs, resting a minute here and
there to refresh ourselves with huckleberries, which grew in
abundance in open spots. About half an hour before sunset, when we
were near a cluster of crumbling pinnacles that formed the summit,
I had ceased to feel anxiety about the mountaineering strength and
skill of my companion, and pushed rapidly on. In passing around
the shoulder of the highest pinnacle, where the rock was rapidly
disintegrating and the danger of slipping was great, I shouted in
a warning voice, "Be very careful here, this is dangerous."
Mr. Young was perhaps a dozen or two yards behind me, but out of
sight. I afterwards reproached myself for not stopping and lending
him a steadying hand, and showing him the slight footsteps I had made
by kicking out little blocks of the crumbling surface, instead of
simply warning him to be careful. Only a few seconds after giving
this warning, I was startled by a scream for help, and hurrying back,
found the missionary face downward, his arms outstretched, clutching
little crumbling knobs on the brink of a gully that plunges down a
thousand feet or more to a small residual glacier. I managed to get
below him, touched one of his feet, and tried to encourage him by
saying, "I am below you. You are in no danger. You can't slip past
me and I will soon get you out of this."
He then told me that both of his arms were dislocated. It was almost
impossible to find available footholds on the treacherous rock, and
I was at my wits' end to know how to get him rolled or dragged to a
place where I could get about him, find out how much he was hurt, and
a way back down the mountain. After narrowly scanning the cliff and
making footholds, I managed to roll and lift him a few yards to a
place where the slope was less steep, and there I attempted to set
his arms. I found, however, that this was impossible in such a place.
I therefore tied his arms to his sides with my suspenders and
necktie, to prevent as much as possible inflammation from movement. I
then left him, telling him to lie still, that I would be back in a
few minutes, and that he was now safe from slipping. I hastily
examined the ground and saw no way of getting him down except by the
steep glacier gully. After scrambling to an outstanding point that
commands a view of it from top to bottom, to make sure that it was
not interrupted by sheer precipices, I concluded that with great
care and the digging of slight footholds he could be slid down to the
glacier, where I could lay him on his back and perhaps be able to set
his arms. Accordingly, I cheered him up, telling him I had found a
way, but that it would require lots of time and patience. Digging a
footstep in the sand or crumbling rock five or six feet beneath him,
I reached up, took hold of him by one of his feet, and gently slid
him down on his back, placed his heels in the step, then descended
another five or six feet, dug heel notches, and slid him down to
them. Thus the whole distance was made by a succession of narrow
steps at very short intervals, and the glacier was reached perhaps
about midnight. Here I took off one of my boots, tied a handkerchief
around his wrist for a good hold, placed my heel in his arm pit, and
succeeded in getting one of his arms into place, but my utmost
strength was insufficient to reduce the dislocation of the other. I
therefore bound it closely to his side, and asked him if in his
exhausted and trembling condition he was still able to walk.
"Yes," he bravely replied.
So, with a steadying arm around him and many stops for rest, I
marched him slowly down in the starlight on the comparatively smooth,
unassured surface of the little glacier to the terminal moraine, a
distance of perhaps a mile, crossed the moraine, bathed his head at
one of the outlet streams, and after many rests reached a dry place
and made a brush fire. I then went ahead looking for an open way
through the bushes to where larger wood could be had, made a good
lasting fire of resiny silver-fir roots, and a leafy bed beside it. I
now told him I would run down the mountain, hasten back with help
from the boat, and carry him down in comfort. But he would not hear
of my leaving him.
"No, no," he said, "I can walk down.
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