Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 1.djvu/178

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The last day of the camp was its climax. Some of the members had left toward the end of the week, others departed on Monday. But three of us remained to climb Mt. Marpole—Dr. A. O. McRae, Rev. Alex. Dunn, and Rev. A. M. Gordon.

We were richly rewarded. True, we had to rise at the unearthly hour of 3:45 in the morning, but even this had its compensations. After early breakfast, Dunn and Gordon set out from camp at five o'clock, in company of the guides, Edouard and Gottfried Feuz. Soon we were joined by Dr. McRae, and the party of five began to ascend the valley toward the mountain. It was weary work following the bed of the stream and then trekking up a long slope of slippery shale to the place where the actual climbing began. But, once we had to pick footholds and often handholds carefully, there was no more fatigue. Mt. Marpole is lower than the Vice-President, but gives more opportunity for actual climbing. Here we saw the real thing. First, the guides took us to the top of the unnamed mountain east of Mt. McMullen, and on its summit they built a cairn or "stone-man," to show that we had made the first ascent. Then they led us along the rocky ridge or arete, traversing the mountain from west to east. There were ascents and descents which no one but an expert or a fool would