The ascent of the mountain was laborious in the extreme. Kit Carson
climbed to one of the loftiest peaks from which he gained a full
view of the very highest elevation. The next day Fremont sent Carson
and several of the men back. He unquestionably intended that no
one should share with him the honor of climbing the most elevated
point. This exploit is worthy of description at the hands of the
Pathfinder himself.

"At intervals we reached places where a number of springs gushed
from the rocks, and about 1,800 feet above the lakes came to the
snow line. From this point our progress was uninterrupted climbing.
Hitherto, I had worn a pair of thick moccasins, with soles of
parfleche but here I put on a light thin pair, which I had brought
for the purpose, as now the use of our toes became necessary to a
further advance. I availed myself of a sort of comb of the mountain,
which stood against the wall like a buttress, and which the wind
and solar radiation, joined to the steepness of the smooth rock,
had kept almost entirely free from snow. Up this I made my way
rapidly. Our cautious method of advancing in the outset had spared
my strength; and, with the exception of a slight disposition to
headache, I felt no remains of yesterday's illness. In a few minutes
we reached a point where the buttress was overhanging, and there was
no other way of surmounting the difficulty than by passing around
one side of it, which was the face of a vertical precipice of
several hundred feet."

Parfleche is the name given to buffalo hide. The Indian women prepare
it by scraping and drying. It is exceedingly tough and hard, and
receives its name from the circumstance that it cannot be pierced