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Sequoia and General Grant
CUTTING TRAIL THROUGH ICE ON MINERS PASS
SIERRA'S CREST, AND LOFTIEST MOUNTAIN
THE Sierra reaches its mightiest climax in Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the United States outside of Alaska. No towering, isolated summit is Whitney, like Mount Rainier and Longs Peak, but literally a climax, for here the Sierra has massed her mountains, tumbled them willfully, recklessly, into one sprawling, titanic heap, as though this were the dumping ground for all left over after the making of America.
Out of this mass emerges one higher than the rest. That is Mount Whitney. Its altitude is 14,496 feet.
The journey to Whitney's summit is a progress of inspiration and climax. From Visalia automobiles carry you under the very shadow of the Big Trees. From there it is a matter of horseback and pack train—out of the Big Tree forest into red firs and little sugar pines; then up among the foxtail pines into the magic land of peaks above the timber line; up the headwaters of the Kaweah; across the splendors of the Great Western Divide; into and over the Kern; then up, up, up, threading passes, skirting precipices, rounding lakes, edging glaciers, to the top.
NO TOWERING, ISOLATED SUMMIT IS MOUNT WHITNEY, LIKE MOUNT RAINIER AND
LONGS PEAK, BUT LITERALLY A CLIMAX, OUT OF THE MASS EMERGES ONE HIGHER
THAN THE REST, THAT IS ALL
Photograph by Mark Daniels
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Last Modified: Mon, Oct 31, 2002 10:00:00 pm PDT
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