From the road end, a trail which is extremely faint and squirrelly at the beginning leads south up a canyon, past fine pinyon and live oak stands and bristling fat blue agaves, and then begins a no-nonsense climb to a shoulder of a subsidiary 7500' peak. The trail - sometimes vague but always there - contours along the E. slope of the subsidiary peak to a 7200' saddle between this peak and the broad S. ridge of Big Hatchet. I finally did lose the trail at this point, but it's a straight shot up this mildly brushy ridge about a mile to the top. The summit gives tremendous views into four states - Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora, and Chihuahua. The snowy 10,000-foot peaks of the Mogollon Mountains in the Gus Wilderness could be made out far to the north. Closer at hand is the gut-shrinking void of the north face, where at least 1500 vertical feet of limestone have simply ceased to exist. To the south, range upon range of strange, unknown blue and gray mountains and broad plays valleys rolled to the edge of the world somewhere down in Chihuahua. That night I camped out where I had left the car, and watched the infinitely soft purple and maroon sunset radiance fade over the harsh face of a nameless desert range east across the Hachita Valley in Mexico. Even after the rosy terminator - the shadow of the earth in the atmosphere - had climbed into indigo specs, the cream-colored plays at the mountains foot glowed with en eerie inner light. I drifted off to sleep in a valley where not a motor - not an airplane - not one light broke the primal silence of the stars.
		Brown Bear Mountaineering Club Denver, Colorado
Barbara Reber		Sept. 1982
Editor, "Desert Sage". Dear Barbara: My name is John Nienhuis, former emblem member of DPS. I met you a couple of times on outings, but I have not climbed a desert peak in years. In my younger days, however, I climbed with stalwarts like Chester Versteeg, section founder, Niles Werner, Walt Henninger, Parker Severson and Bob Bear, all charter members and former Chairmen of the Section. All these rugged souls have now departed to those shining mountains in, perhaps, some far off Galaxy. A few weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to run into another old time Desert Peak climber, Harry Paley, and we had a great time discussing people we had known and places we had been. Harry tells me since Parker Severson died last February, he is the sole remaining Charter Member in the DPS. I'm sure he would be real pleased if you could run a short item in the Desert Sage concerning this, and send him a copy, by mail. His address is:
		Harry Paley 1102 Elden Ave, Los Angeles 90006 c/o A. Glaser. Cordially, John Nienhuis

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