Mount Whitney. Its Ascent by John Muir, the Explorer and Geologist. Different Routes-The Ascent from the East-A Minor Yosemite-Glacier Meadows and Glacier Lakes-Glorious Views-Successive Ascents. (Special Correspondence of the Bulletin.)...

Authors

John Muir

Files

Kimes Entry Number

048

Original Date

8-24-1875

William and Maymie Kimes Annotation

""Men ascend mountains as instinctively as squirrels ascend trees, and, of course, the climbing of Mount Whitney was capital indulgence, apart from the enjoyment drawn from landscape and scientific pursuit."" Leading a party of mountaineers, this was Muir's second ascent. They traveled, he writes, ""by the quick direct route discovered by me two years ago, leading up the east flank of the range opposite Lone Pine .... "" Muir relates humorously that one of the party ""carried a small bottle of spirits for healing, sustaining, and fortifying uses, in case of encounter with triangular headed snakes, bears, Indians, mountain rams, noxious night air, snow storms, etc.; and in case of vertigo and difficult breathing at great heights, together with broken bones, flesh wounds, contusions. For in prudence, is it not well to realize that 'something might happen,' and well to have a helpful spirit-a guardian angel in a bottle ever near?''

Publication

San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin

Page/Column

p. 1, cols. 2-3

See also Kimes Entry Number

See also: no. 419, pp. 64-82; no. 490; no. 505

Recommended Citation

Muir, John, "Mount Whitney. Its Ascent by John Muir, the Explorer and Geologist. Different Routes-The Ascent from the East-A Minor Yosemite-Glacier Meadows and Glacier Lakes-Glorious Views-Successive Ascents. (Special Correspondence of the Bulletin.)..." (1875). John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes (Muir articles 1866-1986). 30.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/30