i had gone into the san juan mountains during the first week in march to learn something of the laws which govern snow slides, to get a fuller idea of their power and destructiveness, and also with the hope of seeing them in wild, magnificent action. everywhere, except on wind-swept points, the winter's snows lay deep. conditions for slide movement were so favorable it seemed probable that, during the next few days at least, one would "run" or chute down every gulch that led from the summit. i climbed on skees well to the top of the range. by waiting on spurs and ridges i saw several thrilling exhibitions.
it was an exciting experience, but at the close of one great day the clear weather that had prevailed came to an end. from the table-like summit i watched hundreds of splendid clouds slowly advance, take their places, mass, and form fluffy seas in valley and ca?ons just[pg 4] below my level. they submerged the low places in the plateau, and torn, silver-gray masses of mists surrounded crags and headlands. the sunset promised to be wonderful, but suddenly the mists came surging past my feet and threatened to shut out the view. hurriedly climbing a promontory, i watched from it a many-colored sunset change and fade over mist-wreathed spires, and swelling, peak-torn seas. but the cloud-masses were rising, and suddenly points and peaks began to settle out of sight; then a dash of frosty mists, and my promontory sank into the sea. the light vanished from the heights, and i was caught in dense, frosty clouds and winter snows without a star.
i had left my skees at the foot of the promontory, and had climbed up by fingers and toes over the rocks without great difficulty. but on starting to return i could see only a few inches into the frosty, sheep's-wool clouds, and quickly found that trying to get down would be a perilous pastime. the side of the promontory stood over the steep walls of the plateau, and, not caring to be tumbled overboard by a slip, i con[pg 5]cluded that sunrise from this point would probably be worth while.
it was not bitter cold, and i was comfortably dressed; however, it was necessary to do much dancing and arm-swinging to keep warm. snow began to fall just after the clouds closed in, and it fell rapidly without a pause until near morning. early in the evening i began a mental review of a number of subjects, mingling with these, from time to time, vigorous practice of gymnastics or calisthenics to help pass the night and to aid in keeping warm. the first subject i thought through was arctic exploration; then i recalled all that my mind had retained of countless stories of mountain-climbing experiences; the contents of tyndall's "hours of exercise in the alps" was most clearly recalled. i was enjoying the poetry of burns, when broken clouds and a glowing eastern sky claimed all attention until it was light enough to get off the promontory.
planning to go down the west side, i crossed the table-like top, found, after many trials, a break in the enormous snow-cornice, and[pg 6] started down the steep slope. it was a dangerous descent, for the rock was steep and smooth as a wall, and was overladen with snow which might slip at any moment. i descended slowly and with great caution, so as not to start the snow, as well as to guard against slipping and losing control of myself. it was like descending a mile of steep, snow-covered barn roof,—nothing to lay hold of and omnipresent opportunity for slipping. a short distance below the summit the clouds again were around me and i could see only a short distance. i went sideways, with my long skees, which i had now regained, at right angles to the slope; slowly, a few inches at a time, i eased myself down, planting one skee firmly before i moved the other.
a snow-slide region a snow-slide region
near telluride, colorado
at last i reached a point where the wall was sufficiently tilted to be called a slope, though it was still too steep for safe coasting. the clouds lifted and were floating away, while the sun made the mountains of snow still whiter. i paused to look back and up, to where the wall ended in the blue sky, and could not understand how i had come safely down, even with [pg 7] the long tacks i had made, which showed clearly up to the snow-corniced, mist-shrouded crags at the summit. i had come down the side of a precipitous amphitheatre which rose a thousand feet or more above me. a short distance down the mountain, the slopes of this amphitheatre concentrated in a narrow gulch that extended two miles or more. altogether it was like being in an enormous frying-pan lying face up. i was in the pan just above the place where the gulch handle joined.
it was a bad place to get out of, and thousands of tons of snow clinging to the steeps and sagging from corniced crests ready to slip, plunge down, and sweep the very spot on which i stood, showed most impressively that it was a perilous place to be in.
as i stood gazing upward and wondering how the snow ever could have held while i came down[pg 8] this cloud over the crest in an inverted cascade.
all this showed for a few seconds until the snowy spray began to separate and vanish in the air. the snow-cloud settled downward and began to roll forward. then monsters of massed snow appeared beneath the front of the cloud and plunged down the slopes. wildly, grandly they dragged the entire snow-cloud in their wake. at the same instant the remainder of the snow-cornice was suddenly enveloped in another explosive snow-cloud effect.
a general slide had started. i whirled to escape, pointed my skees down the slope,—and went. in less than half a minute a tremendous snow avalanche, one hundred or perhaps two hundred feet deep and five or six hundred feet long, thundered over the spot where i had stood.
there was no chance to dodge, no time to climb out of the way. the only hope of escape lay in outrunning the magnificent monster. it came crashing and thundering after me as swift as a gale and more all-sweeping and destructive than an earthquake tidal wave.[pg 9]
i made a desperate start. friction almost ceases to be a factor with skees on a snowy steep, and in less than a hundred yards i was going like the wind. for the first quarter of a mile, to the upper end of the gulch, was smooth coasting, and down this i shot, with the avalanche, comet-tailed with snow-dust, in close pursuit. a race for life was on.
the gulch down which i must go began with a rocky gorge and continued downward, an enormous u-shaped depression between high mountain-ridges. here and there it expanded and then contracted, and it was broken with granite crags and ribs. it was piled and bristled with ten thousand fire-killed trees. to coast through all these snow-clad obstructions at breakneck speed would be taking the maximum number of life-and-death chances in the minimum amount of time. the worst of it all was that i had never been through the place. and bad enough, too, was the fact that a ridge thrust in from the left and completely hid the beginning of the gulch.
as i shot across the lower point of the ridge,[pg 10] about to plunge blindly into the gorge, i thought of the possibility of becoming entangled in the hedge-like thickets of dwarfed, gnarled timber-line trees. i also realized that i might dash against a cliff or plunge into a deep ca?on. of course i might strike an open way, but certain it was that i could not stop, nor see the beginning of the gorge, nor tell what i should strike when i shot over the ridge.
it was a second of most intense concern as i cleared the ridge blindly to go into what lay below and beyond. it was like leaping into the dark, and with the leap turning on the all-revealing light. as i cleared the ridge, there was just time to pull myself together for a forty-odd-foot leap across one arm of the horseshoe-shaped end of the gorge. in all my wild mountainside coasts on skees, never have i sped as swiftly as when i made this mad flight. as i shot through the air, i had a glimpse down into the pointed, snow-laden tops of a few tall fir trees that were firmly rooted among the rocks in the bottom of the gorge. luckily i cleared the gorge and landed in a good place; but so[pg 11] narrowly did i miss the corner of a cliff that my shadow collided with it.
there was no time to bid farewell to fears when the slide started, nor to entertain them while running away from it. instinct put me to flight; the situation set my wits working at their best, and, once started, i could neither stop nor look back; and so thick and fast did obstructions and dangers rise before me that only dimly and incidentally did i think of the oncoming danger behind.
i came down on the farther side of the gorge, to glance forward like an arrow. there was only an instant to shape my course and direct my flight across the second arm of the gorge, over which i leaped from a high place, sailing far above the snow-mantled trees and boulders in the bottom. my senses were keenly alert, and i remember noticing the shadows of the fir trees on the white snow and hearing while still in the air the brave, cheery notes of a chickadee; then the snowslide on my trail, less than an eighth of a mile behind, plunged into the gorge with a thundering crash. i came back to the snow on[pg 12] the lower side, and went skimming down the slope with the slide only a few seconds behind.
fortunately most of the fallen masses of trees were buried, though a few broken limbs peeped through the snow to snag or trip me. how i ever dodged my way through the thickly standing tree growths is one feature of the experience that was too swift for recollection. numerous factors presented themselves which should have done much to dispel mental procrastination and develop decision. there were scores of progressive propositions to decide within a few seconds; should i dodge that tree on the left side and duck under low limbs just beyond, or dodge to the right and scrape that pike of rocks? these, with my speed, required instant decision and action.
with almost uncontrollable rapidity i shot out into a small, nearly level glacier meadow, and had a brief rest from swift decisions and oncoming dangers. how relieved my weary brain felt, with nothing to decide about dodging! as though starved for thought material, i wondered if there were willows buried beneath[pg 13] the snow. sharp pains in my left hand compelled attention, and showed my left arm drawn tightly against my breast, with fingers and thumb spread to the fullest, and all their muscles tense.
the lower edge of the meadow was almost blockaded with a dense growth of fire-killed trees. fortunately the easy slope here had so checked my speed that i was able to dodge safely through, but the heavy slide swept across the meadow after me with undiminished speed, and came crashing into the dead trees so close to me that broken limbs were flung flying past as i shot down off a steep moraine less than one hundred feet ahead.
all the way down i had hoped to find a side ca?on into which i might dodge. i was going too rapidly to enter the one i had seen. as i coasted the moraine it flashed through my mind that i had once heard a prospector say it was only a quarter of a mile from aspen gulch up to the meadows. aspen gulch came in on the right, as the now slightly widening track seemed to indicate.[pg 14]
at the bottom of the moraine i was forced between two trees that stood close together, and a broken limb of one pierced my open coat just beneath the left armhole, and slit the coat to the bottom. my momentum and the resistance of the strong material gave me such a shock that i was flung off my balance, and my left skee smashed against a tree. two feet of the heel was broken off and the remainder split. i managed to avoid falling, but had to check my speed with my staff for fear of a worse accident.
battling breakers with a broken oar or racing with a broken skee are struggles of short duration. the slide did not slow down, and so closely did it crowd me that, through the crashing of trees as it struck them down, i could hear the rocks and splintered timbers in its mass grinding together and thudding against obstructions over which it swept. these sounds, and flying, broken limbs cried to me "faster!" and as i started to descend another steep moraine, i threw away my staff and "let go." i simply flashed down the slope, dodged and rounded a cliff, turned awkwardly into aspen gulch, and tumbled heels over head—into safety.
then i picked myself up, to see the slide go by within twenty feet, with great broken trees sticking out of its side, and a snow-cloud dragging above.
