[Illustration { p.114}: Carbon River below its Gorge, and Mother Mountains. This range was so named because of a rude resemblance to the up-turned face of a woman seen here in the sky-line, while the view of snowy Liberty Cap beyond and the milky whiteness of the stream gave rise to the pleasing fiction that the Indian name of the peak meant "nourishing breast." "Tacoma" meant simply the Snow Mountain.]
[Illustration: Copyright, 1910, By C. E. Cutter. Oldest and youngest climbers, Gen. Hazard Stevens and Jesse McRae. General Stevens, with P. B. Van Trump, in 1870, made the first ascent. In 1905, he came west from Boston and joined the Mazamas in their climb. The picture shows him before his tent in Paradise Park. He was then 63 years old.]
Under the experienced guides, many climbers reach Crater Peak each summer, and no accidents of a serious nature have occurred. The successful climbers numbered one hundred and fifty-nine in 1910. Many more go only as far as Gibraltar, or even to McClure Rock (Elevation, 7,385 feet), and are well rewarded by the magnificent views which these points command of the south-side glaciers and arêtes, with the ranges lying below. The name "McClure Rock" is a memorial of the saddest tragedy of the Mountain. Over the slope below this landmark Prof. Edgar McClure of the University of Oregon fell to his death on the night of July 27, 1897. He had spent the day in severe scientific labor on the summit, and was hurrying down in the moonlight, much wearied, to Reese's Camp for the night. Going ahead of his companions, to find a safe path for them, he called back that the ice was too steep. Then there was silence. Either he slipped in trying to re-ascend the slope, or he fainted from exhaustion. His body was found on the rocks below by his comrades of the Mazama Club.
[Illustration: Copyright, 1897, By E. S. Curtis. P. B. Van Trump, on his old campground, above Sluiskin Falls, where he and Gen. Stevens camped in 1870.]
If one is going the popular route and is equal to so long and unbroken a climb, he may start with his guide from Reese's before dawn, and be on Columbia's Crest by 11 o'clock. But climbers frequently go up Cowlitz Cleaver in the evening, and spend the night at Camp Muir (see pp. 60 and 80). This ledge below Gibraltar gets its name from John Muir, the famous mountaineer, who, on his ascent in 1888, suggested it as a camping place because the presence of pumice indicated the { p.116} absence of severe winds. It offers none of the conveniences of a camp save a wind-break, and even in that respect no one has ever suffered for want of fresh air. It is highly desirable that a cabin be erected here for the convenience of climbers. Such shelters as the Alpine clubs have built on the high shoulders of many peaks in Switzerland are much needed, not only at Muir, but also on the Wedge, as well as inside one of the craters, where, doubtless a way might be found to utilize the residuary heat of the volcano for the comfort of the climbers.