First on Top

ON ITS WAY TO BECOMING THE NATION'S LARGEST GRASSROOTS CONSERVATION ORGANIZATION, THE SIERRA CLUB MADE ITS MARK IN THE ANNALS OF MOUNTAINEERING.

WHEN THE SIERRA CLUB WAS FORMED in 1892, the natural world was a less charted place. It was still easy to blaze a new trail, map an unnamed valley, or summit a mountain not already visited by previous expeditions. In its articles of incorporation, the nascent Club declared its intention to "explore, enjoy, and render accessible the mountain regions of the Pacific Coast"; in so doing, early members became an integral part of the history of the wilderness they loved. (In 1951, after new roads had been proposed for some of the Sierra Nevada's wildest areas, the Club revised its statement of purpose to "explore, enjoy, and preserve the Sierra Nevada and other scenic resources of the United States.")

Reflecting John Muir's belief that taking people into the wilderness was the best way to increase the number of nature defenders, the Club led mass ascents of Mts. Whitney and Rainier. Women were included on many early climbs, on the condition, in some cases, that "no skirts were to be worn." (In September 1903, the San Francisco Chronicle heralded a Club outing that brought the first women up 14,375-foot Mt. Williamson, the second-highest peak in California.)

The most adventurous Sierra Club members set off on their own or in small groups, before the advent of now-standard climbing equipment such as ropes, carabiners, and pitons, and made it into the history books with these and other first ascents of peaks throughout the Sierra Nevada and beyond. In lauding these accomplishments, the February 1941 Sierra Club Bulletin notes the exclusion of John Muir himself, "who, leaving no records on the summits that he visited, must have anticipated more than one `first ascent.'" (The peak-bagging described here occurred in the Sierra Nevada unless otherwise noted.)

1895--Arrow Peak (Bolton Colt Brown)

1896--Mt. Gardiner (Brown, Joseph N. LeConte)

1896--Center Peak (Cornelius Beach Bradley)

1896--University Peak (Helen Gompertz, LeConte, Belle Miller, Estelle Miller)

1896--Mt. Clarence King (Brown)

1896--Mt. Stanford (Brown)

1902--Split Mountain (Helen M. LeConte, LeConte, Curtis M. Lindley)

1903--Mt. Sill (James S. Hutchinson, LeConte, James K. Moffitt, Robert D. Pike)

1903--North Palisade (Hutchinson, LeConte, Moffitt)

1908--Mt. Abbot (Hutchinson, LeConte, Duncan McDuffie). This ascent was part of a 300-mile trek "over unscouted country south from Tuolumne to Evolution Basin and Muir Pass to the Kings River."

1912--Milestone Mountain (William E. Colby, Francis P. Farquhar, Robert M. Price)

1913--Devils Crags (Charles W. Michael)

1920--Black Kaweah (Onis Imus Brown, McDuffie, Hutchinson)

1921--Middle Palisade (Farquhar, Ansel F. Hall)

1923--Mt. Winchell (Harvey C. Mansfield, John M. Newell, W. B. Putnam)

1925--Mt. LeConte (Norman Clyde)

1931--East face of Mt. Whitney (Clyde, Glen Dawson, Jules M. Eichorn, Robert L. M. Underhill)

1934--Washington Column (Virginia Greever, Randolph May, Bestor Robinson)

1934--Higher Cathedral Spire (Eichorn, Richard M. Leonard, Robinson). The ascent of the Cathedral Spires marked the first use of pitons in the Sierra Nevada.

1934--Lower Cathedral Spire (Eichorn, Leonard, Robinson)

1935--Mt. Humphreys from the east (Clyde)

1935--Northwest face of Lower Cathedral Rock (Doris Leonard, Leonard, Robinson). Of this climb, Richard M. Leonard wrote, "The problem consists in working out from under a massive overhang on a 70-degree face 1,100 feet above the valley floor. Although the difficult portion is only 150 feet high, the piton technique is as intricate as anything yet accomplished by our group."

1936--Mt. Waddington, British Columbia (Bill House, Fritz Wiessner)

1937--East Temple, Zion National Park, Utah (Dawson, Homer Fuller, Wayland Gilbert, Dick Jones)

1939--Shiprock, New Mexico (Raffi Bedayan, David R. Brower, John Dyer, Robinson). Climbers had been daunted by this 1,700-foot volcanic neck for years; at least one had died trying to reach the top. The threat to life and limb wasn't just from falling. As his group prepared to finally summit, Robinson called down to his wife, Florence, "to inquire how she had survived the night. `Splendid,' she replied, `only I had to kill two rattlers that insisted the camp was theirs.'"

1940--Leaning Chimney (Kenneth D. Adam, Brower, Morgan Harris, Leonard, Carl Rosberg)

1940--Kat Pinnacle (DeWitt Allen, Torcom Bedayan, Robin Hansen)

1940--Snowpatch Spire, British Columbia (Jack Arnold, R. Bedayan)

1946--Lost Arrow (Arnold, Hansen, Fritz Lippmann, Anton "Ax" Nelson)

1947--Mt. Confederation, Alberta (John D. Mendenhall, Ruth Mendenhall)

1950--Castle Rock Spire (Philip C. Bettler, Jim Wilson)

1950--North face of Sentinel Rock (John Salathe, Allen P. Steck)

1951--Mt. Bear, Alaska (Alfred W. Baxter Jr., Rupert Gates, Jon Lindberg, Lippmann)

1951--Mt. Jordan, Alaska (Gates, Lindberg)

1952--East peak of Huandoy, Peru (William Ski, Steck)