Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada.' of the Poetry of the Sierra There Is Little to Be Said
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88 The Sierra Nevada of California. close on five hours, and it was 12.50 before we reached the summit, nearly 7000 ft. above camp. The descent by the ordinary route on the S.W. was a sad contrast. The rock is loose, the afternoon sun beat down with great strength, and we .had some difficulty in finding the top of the chimney, which is -the key to this route. However, we were back in camp before dark. The weather now appeared to be breaking, so we abandoned the idea of visiting Glacier Circle. Instead, we traversed Leda, Pollux and Castor from Asulkan Pass . Rain commenced that ·evening, and next morning through the clouds we could see at intervals that much snow had fallen higher up. Regretfully 1 departed for Toronto, with grateful recollections of a charming country, unspoilt as yet by funiculars, field-forges and Congres d' Alpinisme. · • THE SIERRA NEVADA OF CALIFORNIA . BY FRANCIS P. FARQUHAR. LIT~LE over sixty years ago the ALPINE JouRNAL published a review of Clarence King's ' Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada,' in which the reviewer congratulated the Americans on the possession of a chain of mountains ' sur .passing in vegetation and rivalling in height and picturesque ness of form, if not in extent of glacier and snow-fields, the S":iss Alps.' 1 From that day until1929, when Mr. Gunther's admirable article, ' The Sierra Nevada of the Upper Kern River, California,' 2 appeared, scarcely a mention of this great .range is to be found in ~he teeming volumes of the JouRNAL. Yet during these days it has been explored, surveyed and mapped ; its peaks have nearly all been climbed, its natural history and its geological features have been described, and its praises have been sung by one of the greatest of mountain prophets, John Muir. To bridge this gap I shall endeavour to place before the readers of the ALPINE JOURNAL a condensed account of the Sierra Nevada of California with special reference to the interests of mountain-climbers. rrhe Sierra Nevada is officially defined as being 'limited on .the north by the gap south of Lassen Peak, and on the south 1 A.J. 5, 389-96. 2 A.J. 41, 328- 40. I 1 Photo, Francis P . Parquhar.] Loo1n~o N . ALO~G THE PALISADES E'ROM Scl\DIIT OF ?\f1DDLE PALISADE. [To face p . 88. The Sierra Nevada of California. 89 • by Tehachapi Pass ' 3 that is to say, it extends from about latitude 40° 15' to latitude 35° 15', approximately 400 miles, in a general N.W.-S.E. direction. Its breadth varies from 40 to 80 miles. It lies entirely in California, excepting for a small area at Lake Tahoe where it is penetrated by an angle of the State of Nevada. Geographically and geologically it is a single unit, not connected with the Cascades, the Coast Range, or the ranges of the Great Basin. Throughout its length it forms a watershed from which streams flow W. into the great. central valley of California, and E. into sinks and alkaline lakes which have no outlet to the sea. The eastern streams are numerous but small, plunging rapidly except where they are checked by natural obstacles or artificial dams. Those on theW. are composed of many branches of varied character which, converging, enter the depths of vast canyons or gorges in powerful torrents. In their mountain courses they are not navigable, even by so pliable a craft as a canoe. The canyons of the eastern streams form direct avenues of approach to the passes which lead across the Sierra crest ; in a few hours one may ascend from the hot desert valleys to the cool snows of the summit. On the western slope, however, the way is long and winding, following ridges rather than canyons,. mounting. gradually from grassy foothills, through sparse ·oaks, into the main forest belt of the mid-Sierra, until it emerges into a region of more open forests, of meadows, and of bare granite ridges. This region, at an altitude ranging from 6000 to 12,000 ft., with ridges and peaks rising 2000 ft. higher, is known as the High Sierra. ~he High Sjerra is the realm of the pack-train, camper and mountain-climber ; the middle region is divided between the lumberman, the cattleman and· the automobile tourists ; the lower canyons and foothills, once the land of gold, are now devoted largely to reservoirs for irrigation and hydro-electric power. The principal streams of the western slope are, from N. to S. the Feather River (r~o de las Plumas, qf the Spaniards), the Yuba, the American (rto de los Americanos), the Mokelumne (pr. Mo-kel'-um-ne), the Stanislaus, the Tuolumne (Too-wol' um-ne), the Merced (Mer-sed'), the San Joaquin (Hwa-keen. ~), the Kings (rio de los Santos Reyes, river o£ the Holy Kings ; to be written, if you choose, Kings', but never King's), the Kaw~ah (Ka-wee' -ya), and the Kern. All save one of these rivers spring from the main divide of the range; the Kaweah occupies an 3 U.S. Geographic Board: Fifth Report, Washington, 1921,-p. 298. 90 The Sierra Nevada of Calijorn.ia. angle formed by secondary divides, but its character is .such as to place it among the high mountain streams. By the names of these rivers the principal districts of the Sierra are designated. One speaks, for instance, of the Feather River country, or of going to the Kings or to the Kern. The northern districts, as far S. as the Stanislaus, contain very little of outstanding interest to the mountain-climber, although for beauty of scenery, for camping, and for other purposes they have their special charms. Beginning with the Tuolumne, however, and extending with but a few gaps as far S. as the Whitney group in the Kern, plenty of first-rate climbing is to be found. A few miles S. of Whitney the character of the mountains changes abruptly, and the climber's interest ceases. The Sierra Nevada is a ' block range.' That is, it is a single great block of the earth's crust, tilted on an axis so as to expose the eastern edge in a long escarpment, while the western edge, submerged, is covered with alluvial deposits. The vast extent of this tilting is demonstrated in the neighbourhood of Mt. Whitney, where a full 8000 ft. is the measure of the visible displacement. The composition of this great block is largely granite, using that term in a broad sense to include a variety of igneous rocks. Here and there on the surface of the granite batholith stand remnants of older ranges composed of meta morphic rocks of varied character. Ancient volcanic action is much in evidence at the northern end of the range and in the Owens Valley adjacent to the range farther S. A few small cinder cones are found near Mt. Whitney. The principal agencies, however, by which the present features of the Sierra have been formed are the tilting of the great block and the forces of . stream erosion and ice erosion. Alternation of heat and cold has added finer details to the sculpture. It is now well established that there have been three glacial periods during the life of the present range, each of which has . given its own .touch to the surface. Out of these periods, supplemented by the force of mighty rivers and governed by the inherent structure of the rock, have come the Yosemite, the Kings River Canyon, and other .superlative examples of glaciated valleys. The unity of the Sierra Nevada seems to have been recognized by the earliest observers. The Franciscan, Fray Pedro Font, who first placed the name definitely on a map, writes in his diary on April2, 1776 : ' and finally, on the other side of the immense plain, and at a distance of about forty leagues, we saw a grand Sierra Nevada [una gran sierra nevada] whose trend appeared Photo, Jfa1'jc1·y Bridge.] TnE O:F' THE OF I<Ixcs H.rYEH. PALISADES.' LOOKI~G Acnoss 'l'HE CA~Yox ~IronLE FonK ['l'o face ] J. !>0. The Sierra Nevada of California. 91 to. me to be from south-southeast to north-northwest.' 4 It is from this entry and the map that Font made to accompany his diary that we derive our name for the range. An Englishman would have called it ' The Snowy Range,' which means the same thing. It is apparent, therefore, that, strictly speaking, the name should be singular, but 'Sierra Nevadas 'and 'Sierras' are so well established by usage that it is perhaps pedantic to object to them. On the other hand, no amount of usage can give sanction to such a solecism as' Sierra Nevada Mountains.' Notwithstanding the implication of its name, the Sierra Nevada is comparatively free from snow during the summer. In exceptional years the winter's snowfall remains on the passes and in the high valleys until late July, but ordinarily one may count on finding all save the very highest passes open for travel by the first of that month. Small snowfields at the bases of peaks and hard-frozen snow in shaded couloirs fre quently last all summer. There are a number of small glaciers usually well covered with hard snow and practically free from dangerous crevasses. Perhaps the only spot in the Sierra at which an ice axe may be considered indispensable is the bergschrund at the head of North Palisade Glacier. Else where it is rarely called into use, excepting in winter or early season climbing, or where one is in deliberate pursuit" of opportunities for its exercise.