and we used a crack to the right of the falls to climb up and over. The canyon branches at about 6600 feet and we stayed to the left. Forty minutes later, at 7300 feet, it branched again, and here we took the right hand fork. Shortly beyond, we stopped for a thirty minute lunch break. The wind was still blowing, but the clouds had made no further headway into the Pass. We thought our luck would hold for the rest of the way. Shortly after starting out from our lunch stop, at about 8500 feet, the canyon branched a third time and here we stayed to the left. One hour beyond, at about 9l00 feet, the canyon divided into four large diverging chutes. We took the third chute from the right. The snow was deeper and not as well packed at the higher elevations, and sometimes instead of kicking steps on a hard crust, we would flounder through a stretch of soft snow. Even so, we averaged better than 900 feet an hour elevation gain on the long snow chute. The chute we were in trended a little to the east of the peak. After climbing an hour we got on the ridge to our right and followed it directly to the top. It took us nine hours of climbing, not counting our lunch break, to reach the summit at 10,804 feet. The wind was still blowing and the temperature was 33 degrees, however the sky overhead was clear. After warming up for a few minutes at the hut just below the summit, we hiked the three and a half miles over to the Tramway Mountain Station located at 8515 test. Hers we paid $2.00 for a one way trip and made a 15 minute descent to our car at the Valley Station, 5873 feet, below. SAN JAC NORTH FACE MOST CHALLENGING SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASCENT    JWR The rugged north face of Mt. San Jacinto is on of the most precipitous escarpments in the nation, dropping over 10,000 feet in about six miles. It bears a close resemblance to the spectacular eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada both topographically and geologically. For almost 200 years, travelers passing through Coachella Valley and San Gorgonio Pass marveled at the grandeur of this great mountain scarp and the primitive high country behind it. In the early 19th century American settlers explored the San Jack wilderness and climbed the mountain from the easy south side, but until well into the 20th Century no one ventured onto the steep north face, foreboding as it was. With the advent of Southern California's "Age of Mountaineering" in the late 1920's and early 1930's, climbers began to notice the potential routes on San Jacinto's rugged escarpment. It remained for three Sierra Club first generation rock climbers - Howard Sloan, Morgan Leonard, and Glenn Rickenbough to make the first ascent of San Jack's north face on April 16, 1932. This they did via the now traditional Snow Creek route in ten exhausting hours of climbing. Since that climb 32 years ago, more than 40 ascents of the north face have been made. Most of these were via Snow Creek, the most direct route; Other routes successfully negotiated on the face have been via neighboring Falls Creek and Chino Canyon (underneath the present tramway). Most accents of Snow Creek take in the neighborhood of ten to twelve hours, with a bivouac in upper Snow Creek or just over the summit in the stone cabin. The nine and a half hours (9 hrs. actual climbing) of the Jones' Party is probably a record - this is averaging almost 1000 feet per hour over brush, 3rd and 4th class rock, and steep snow, a very good performance. For those interested in reading further on San Jack's north face, the bibliography on the next page is offered.

Page Index	Prev	Page 8	Next	Issue Index