CLIMB OF WHATCOM COUNTY PEAK IS TEST
OF NERVE, MUSCLE, ENDURANCE AND GRIT

Real Task Begins in Last Ten Miles of Distance -- To Make the Trip in Leisurely Fashion Is Arduous -- Well Known Local Authority Points Out Dangers and Trials of Journey When Made in Attempt to Cut Down Time Limit -- Like Climbing Flight of Stairs Two Miles in Height.

Charles F. Easton, the author of the following extraordinary and highly interesting article, is an experienced mountaineer and nature lover. Mr. Easton offers the interesting deductions; that it is 30.3 miles by air line from the corner of Dock and Holly to the tip of Mt. Baker; that the rise from the city to the summit amounts to 2 inches for every step taken; that the energy required to climb it is about equal to walking 100 miles on the level, or 20 miles upstairs.

(From the BELLINGHAM DAILY HERALD August 6th, 1911)

When the assertion was made last winter, during a
general conversation between some mountain climbers,
that the summit of Mt.Baker could be reached and the
return made to Bellingham in twenty-four hours, the
statement was promptly ridiculed. But now, after
considerable discussion and the making of one trial trip
in which four parties ,without training for it,
accomplished the feat in thirty-seven hours, it is claimed
that it is possible to make the trip and return in
fifteen hours. But--this would be going some."
The distance from the corner of Dock and Holly
streets, in an air line, to the tip-top of this great
snow-clad volcano is exactly thirty and three tenths
miles, but by any roads or trails very much greater.
If it were possible to make the ascent of Mt. Baker
from Bellingham on foot along this thirty-mile air
line, the rise in grade would amount approximately to
two inches for every step taken, or for comparison,
something like Oakland Hill on Holly Street. Make
this hill without slackening your step and you will
notice that your heart beats faster, your breath is
shorter and your temperature begins to rise. This
little test would be thoroughly convincing if the hill
were long enough to keep going for a sample mile or
two. Ask your chauffeur what increase in power is
necessary to get up Oakland Hill without slackening
speed of his auto. The actual physical power on
such a grade as you would make along the air line to
the summit of Mt. Baker, estimated according to the law
of moving bodies, is three times the energy consumed
in walking the same distance on a level in the same
length of time.

There is an up-and-down movement of the body at
every step in walking as well as a forward movement.
For illustration, we will say that this lift and drop
amounts to one inch with each step, which for the
average person is not far wrong. It is a part of the act
of walking. One person may weigh less than one hundred
pounds and another more than two hundred, but this
question of avoirdupois must be handled, or rather, must
be pedaled, with some proportionate motive power.
Suppose the average person weighs one hundred and sixty
five pounds. In order to walk at all this bodily
weight must be lifted by muscular effort and dropped
again with every step, even on a level path. When going
up grade at the rate of one inch per step the
weight of the body must be elevated, then, just two inches
and requires exactly twice the power, provided of
course that the speed is not slackened. And, to walk
up an incline of two inches to the step, or about the
grade of hypothetical air-line trail from Bellingham to
Baker, it requires three of these energy units. There
is no going back on this mechanical principle.

Three miles an hour is good walking, proceeding leisurely.
Four miles is extra good and means you are hurrying up some,
and six miles or more is running. If the person of one hundred
and sixty five pounds could run thirty miles in five hours,
on a level road, he would be generating and consuming the same
power that would be required of him to climb Mt. Baker by our air
line route in fifteen hours, an average climb of two
miles per hour, not of course including the return.
This comparison gives a fair idea of the effort required
to do up grade work. In other terms, if this person can climb
this grade to the summit of Baker at the rate of two miles
an hour, it is equivalent to walking on a level, at the same speed,
and carrying a pack of three hundred and thirty pounds.
If he can't do the one he cannot do the other.

But we are not denying the claim made, for the race
to the summit of Mt. Baker and back will not be made
along a uniform grade, neither will the whole distance
be done on foot. Special trains and automobiles will
convey the contestants as far as roads extend, both going
be made on foot by way of Glacier will be upwards
of ten miles, not counting curves, each way, partly by
blazed trail and in part over the snow and ice. By
way of Deming, the distance will be greater, of much the
same character but with improved trails. When the
base of the mountain is reached the elevation to be
made will be practically the same for the two routes,
with the advantage, if it be any, in favor of Deming,
in a slightly shorter snow climb.

Mountain climbing is a sort of block and tackle
problem. The climber accomplishes things which seem
to be impossible, by taking his time to it, But time is
the essence of all contracts and in this race the
runners will not dare to consume more time than nerve,
muscle and endurance will actually demand. The weight
of the person is the only fixed quantity. The velocity
is dependent upon the energy available, so the length
of time the runner consumes, when hurrying, will be
inversely to the capacity of his muscular power plant.
Of course there are many modifying factors, such as
clothing ,footing ,weather ,obstructions ,previous
experience and good or bad judgement, any one of which
might decide the race, were all the contestants
otherwise equal.

The laws of motion apply to dead weight. However,
the act of walking is not dissimilar in a certain sense
to propulsion by means of the wheel with crank and
shaft. For example, for every step taken the foot is
lifted, moved forward and brought to a stop, carrying
its load. With every revolution of a drive wheel every
part of the periphery moves forward and comes again to
a full stop where it comes in contact with the
ground. The weight sustained is moved uniformly forward,
but the foot and leg, like the crank and shaft
with their wheel, move by impulses and the momentum consumes
the motive power both in the starting and the stopping.
The writer was once the engineer of a scraper and a span
of mules in the building of the Northern Pacific.
A "hog-engine" ran away down the steep grade
from the Mullin Tunnel toward Helena, Montana. The
momentum of the eight big drive wheels was all that
held it back. They were not well counterpoised, it
seemed, and the starting and stopping of the heavy sides
and the downward movement of the massive cranks and
connecting rods at every revolution, checked the speed
so it did not leave the rails, but with every down
stroke the big steel rails were dented as if it had
been done with a pile driver. The momentum of the one
hundred and sixty five pound body, in racing, is greatly
increased, with the rapidity of motions of the runner
over the normal movement in ordinary walking or climbing,
fixing every racer's limit.

By virtue of the elasticity or "give" of the muscles
in stepping, the power required is not all exerted at any
single instant, but is gradually distributed in starting
and stopping the feet and legs and in lifting and
dropping the body repeated at every step, but the energy
is consumed and can be determined in mechanical foot-pounds.

A base ball hurled by the pitcher and stopped by the
catcher actually involves the same expense. of energy as
if it were driven by the bat and stopped by a stone
wall, but the prolonged impulses at the beginning and
ending distributes the force and makes possible by hand
what could not be done without such cushion process.

In consequence of the inertia of matter, force is
necessary to either stop or start the body. In climbing,
the human body is elevated at each step by sheer muscular
force, but comes to rest by the counteracting force
of gravity with the cessation of the physical exertion.
Action and reaction are equal, according to the third
law of motion, and in opposite directions. Descending
an in a line, the drop of the body is due to gravity.
The leg, however, is muscular and the collision of it with
the ground would be disastrous to bone and tissue were
the impact not more or less lightened at each foot-fall
by muscular effort to ease the shock. Hence it is that
some climbers, who happen to be a little deficient in
muscular development in proportion to size, find down
hill work much harder than it is for others of lighter
weight or stronger muscle. The ease of down-hill climbing
mg comes with the elasticity of the step.

One of the contestants in the forth-coming Mt. Baker
race may win on the up-grade, and doubtless will the results
will show, because of his superior breathing capacity in
thin atmosphere backed up with great power of endurance.
Another will take more time to reach the top but win
out on the down-hill pull because of his peculiar muscular
ability. But the possessor of both of these
physical qualities may not even be a sure winner.
Previous experience is a skillful accomplishment and a
strong factor to be reckoned with. Good judgement in
the application and conservation of strength may win
the race, but consistent training to harden the different
muscles that will be brought into service, not especially
active in ordinary occupations and on the level,
is an important element not to be overlooked.

First comes the auto races from Bellingham to the
gateway of the Deming trail, and the special train to
reach the Glacier trail. Then the sprinting begins. A
A few miles of trail work in the gloom and blackness
of middle night, through the winding holes in the wood,
and the test of vigor and brawn begins.

The real climb commences the last nine or ten miles.
This is not over some ideal race course but over rocks
and ice and snow, with an element of risk to chance. Day
has dawned and the cool of the morning finds them reeking
with perspiration and panting for breath. The average
lift per step for this last stiff climb will be
about the same as climbing your stairway at home, about
seven inches rise to the step. Try this out by going up
the stairs steadily for a distance of twenty miles including
the returns and you will get a very practical
idea of the expense of physical energy and the fatigue
that goes with the simple Mt. Baker climb, leaving out
the approaches. Then if you succeed in working up
some interest and enthusiasm in the experiment and your
motors are working well, repeat the trip in just one
half the time. If you happen to be a person of a trifle
more than average weight you will be developing and
expending about a half horse power. Anybody can do
this--for a while:

The Bellingham-to-Baker race will be pulled off
August 9th. By way of suggestion, if any member of your
family intends to enter the race and contest for the
prizes offered by the HERALD and the Mt.Baker Club to
those who make first and second time to the Summit and
return to Bellingham, it is high time some vigorous
training were being done. There is no use of doing this
stunt in public by chasing up and down Mt. Constitution,
taking Chuckanut via Sehome Hill before breakfast, braving
the tortures of flies and mosquitoes, risking attacks
of bears and mountain lions and disturbing the peace
and quiet of the country at large ,with just a good
chance of losing the race. Better put your contestant
in training on the hall stairs at home.

Have him dress in Mountaineer climbing togs. Be
sure he has his alpenstock, ice-axe, coil of rope, grease
paint and goggles, in order to cultivate the habit. If he
forgets his lunch, it will not matter much, for it may
remind him to get back quicker. Wake him promptly at
10 o'clock and see that he sits upright and takes some
interest for about an hour and a half in what is going
to occur. This simulates the automobile and train
trip from town to the end of the roads.

Now the hiking begins. Put him on the trail,
outdoors in the dark, and run him round and round the
house until he has made the first twelve miles. Keep
tally on him to avoid short cuts through the house. Be
sure to have him through with this first lap and at
the foot of the stairs strictly by daylight. Give him
a light breakfast but keep him on the move. He may never
have been a hard drinker, but from now on he may use
water by the gallon, drinking it to replace the loss by
perspiration.

Start him on the stairway. Hob nails will not
answer any longer. Have him insert the No.7 calks in his
shoes, or do it for him, and be quick about it. Never
mind the stair carpet, that is unsanitary and passe,
anyway. It will answer as a substitute for snow climbing

See that he goes up and down stairs at double-quick.
This will be necessary if he ever wins. There is no
danger of slipping,. The half-inch steel calks in the
stair carpet will prevent this. You will not need to
urge him --yet-- the trophy and the five double eagles
offered as first prize will be incentive enough, but be
sure to keep the try right and that he is making good.

Don't let him talk back at you. In mountain climbing
one needs all his breath for power purposes. He may
want to explain to you that there is no fun in this indoor
mountain climbing, but you probably don't see the
sense of mountain climbing at all. Most people do not,
so do not permit any talking, for this is one of the
rules of mountaineers.

If your stairway has the usual number of steps it
will require him to make two thousand round trips over this
route to make one mile, and bear in mind that there are
twenty of these miles of steep, stiff up-stair climbing
not including the few miles coiled around the house.

Provided your racer loses out on any one mile dash,
the best way to make it up is to skip every other step
on the stairs going up and coast down the banister on
the way back. It will be good practice to occasionally
make a running jump from the upper landing to the lower
floor. It will not only gain time, but the training will
come in handy in jumping crevasses on the snow-fields.
This will take some little power but this part is all
right as he is supposed to have some extra in storage.

Keep a pan of crushed ice at the head of the stairs.
It is a good substitute when the canteen goes dry. It
may not be altogether good form to eat water, but he will
do this anyway, besides it will keep down his temperature
for this indoor training. There is no substitute for rarefied
air, unless you close the doors and windows tightly and start the
vacuum cleaner.

When the first fifteen of the twenty miles have
been raced you may consider him at the Summit. Although
this stairway training has the advantage of being back
as soon as he is up, and will save his being carried
home on a stretcher in case of accident, it gives all
the required exercise and hardens the muscles for both
the ascent and the descent.

It is your place now to act as referee. Fill in
the date, the exact time of arrival and conserve his
strength by permitting him to sign him last name only.

Give him some raisins, an egg sandwich and a lemon
and start him back.

There. is an old saying that what goes up must come
down, and this is especially true in connection with this
Mt. Baker race. If our contestants fag out and can't
come down, they will have to be brought down.

Of course the return trip is just as many miles by
measurement as the trip up, but we have allowed three-
fourths of the time for the up climb on diluted atmosphere,
so the descent must be made in the other fourth.
Its equivalent on the stairway only means ten
thousand more round trips, which you are playing will
bring him to the foot of the mountain proper.

This practically means that he should take the
banister down every time, occasionally cutting out the
tobogganing and jumping direct from the landing to the
floor to save time, and hit only every other step on
the stairway going up. Otherwise, your racer will be
sure to lose out, as this stairway culture is moderate
exercise when compared with the winning of the Mt.Baker
Marathon. Remember, too, that every race has a home
stretch, when he must get right down to business.

If he is working on time there should be one round
trip every second of time, beating this a little when
the going is good. It takes a good mountaineer to
do this, but, there are twenty registered who will soon
know whether they can or not.

This part of the race finished, he must go outside
in the fresh air and unwind the twelve miles from around
the house, and be in a hurry about it. If he
can spare time to remove the calks it will save the
lawn a good deal. Getting these twelve miles reeled
off is really the home-stretch. By this time, in the
sure-enough race, there will sure be a first-best if
if there happens to be anybody at all. The last man
should be entitled to something more than mere sympathy
thy but he is not likely to win any trophies, and your
contestant wouldn't be training now just to lose out.
Make it your business to use your lungs to help the
poor fellow get there.

At the end of the trail, if he is still of the
opinion that he wants the prize, load him into the rocking
chair and keep it in motion as if it were an auto or
the B.B. special, until he rallies enough to realize
that he is back in Bellingham. The Chamber of Commerce
and the Mt. Baker Club committees will do the rest.
Perhaps he may divide the prize money with his
trainer --- if, he wins.

Mountain climbing is easily done in the office or
club room. Some pretty, good records have been made
in this way. It is a diversion often indulged in and
has an advantage of encouraging the circulation of
good red blood . The editor of Recreation told the
writer that his readers envied him his position.
"Why, Mr. Easton, I spend all my life serving the tourists
and out-door people, but I never get an outing; all I see
of the great outdoors is what can be seen from my
seventh story office window." But high climbing, like
high financing, as an office matter, sometime works out
successfully when actually put into practice.

Mt. Baker has never been climbed with an auto.
It was tried once with a horse but the mountain worked
better as a toboggan slide. There was never much
said about it, but it as nearly a success as Dr.
Cooks' climb to the "Top of the Continent." There is
a large, flat top which may used as a landing for the
flying machine, one of these days.

This is the first race of the kind among the sky
scrapers of the Pacific Coast. Bellingham and its
neighbors are doing it. Mt. Baker is getting a formal
introduction to the people of our republic. This
mountain and its immediate environs are deserving of
improvement and development for its scenic value. It
is the object of the Mt. Baker Club to continue these
marathons as long as they may be beneficial in stirring
up active interest and co-operation in the building
of roads and better trails which will aid in opening
up the fascinating features of this WONDERLAND.