Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 1.djvu/153

100 THE FIRST ASCENT OF THE CENTRAL PEAK OF MT. BAGHEERA

most men, who have done somewhat more than the ordinary show-peak climbing, who have got beyond the educational drudgery of the art, and grown enthusiastic for the most dehghtful of all forms of outdoor exercise, there comes the desire of conquering a virgin peak. A vague idea at first, then a shadowy possibility, it soon becomes a positive yearning to stand where no human foot has stood before, scale at least one soaring point free from cairns and luncheon cans, before axe and rope are laid by for ever. In the Alps there are none such left to conquer, though there is at least one whereon, though sometimes climbed, the foot of man has never stood. The mountaineer thirsting for fame is reduced to forcing new paths by forbidden routes up or down the oft-climbed peaks. Or else he must seek more distant fields; the Caucasus, the Himalayas, or the Rockies. Some such thoughts as these passed through my brain, as, after leaving Calgary in the early summer of 1905, the mighty barrier of mountains unfolded itself stretching north and south into vanishing distance. But nearer investigation brought disappointment. Everything seemed to have been done already. To find a decent virgin peak, it would be necessary to hire some sort of an outfit—ponies, tents, and drivers. It did not sound comfortable, and it did sound expensive. It is true that I was shown from the top of Temple one of the Ten Peaks that had perhaps never been ascended; but it was a long snow-