February 1953

YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES VOLUME XXXII • NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 1953

Yosemite Nature Notes Ansel Adams Skiers setting out from the Snow Creek Lodge in the 1930's. Cover Photo : Skiers near the top of Tenaya Peak, by Ansel Adams.

THE MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE YOSEMITE NATURALIST DIVISION AND THE YOSEMITE NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION, INC.

John C. Preston, Superintendent D. E. McHenry, Park Naturalist D. H. Hubbard, Assoc. Park Naturalist N. B. Herkenham, Asst. Park Naturalist W. W. Bryant, Junior Park Naturalist

VOL. XXXII FEBRUARY 1953 NO. 2 STORY OF THE SNOW CREEK LODGE

By Mary Curry Tresidder The register of the Snow Creek Lodge* — the somewhat grandiose name of our original little ski cabin —takes me back to our early skiing days here in Yosemite. In the late winter of 1928-29 Dr. Donald Tresidder had made a trip on skis to Tuolumne Meadows in a party which included Ernst Des Voeux, Baillets—who was in charge of winter sports for the Yosemite Park and Curry Co., O. G. Taylor—then the park engineer, Jules Fritsch, and one or two others. He came back full of enthusiasm for the ski terrain, and as a result the cabin was built next fall in order to give an opportunity for the study of snow conditions on the north rim of Yosemite Valley. The slopes from there to Snow Flat and May Lake were considered to be where the snowfall in the park was heaviest, as the drifts were always deepest there when the Tioga Road was opened in spring, practically, for the remainder of the week. Winter sports seemed to give some hope of spreading a thin layer of guests over the lean days. We were more hopeful than that, as a matter of fact. We had ourselves been infected by the deadly ski virus, and we saw Yosemite with its background of beauty as an outstanding winter place. We confidently expected that within a few years the High Sierra Camps would be a series of winter huts like those in the Alps or the Tyrol with skiers touring from one to another. We found, however, that people at that time did not know enough either about skiing or about ski-mountaineering to make that dream workable, and by the time they knew more about skiing the lift type of the sport had pushed ski-touring far to the were always deepest there when the rear (Appendix, No. 2). Tioga Road was opened in spring. The All-Year Highway had been completed by the fall of 1926, and that had materially changed the tempo of winter life in Yosemite, bringing the Yosemite Park and Curry Co. a difficult problem of high weekly demand (Appendix, No. 1). The floor of Yosemite Valley did not give adequate slopes; the moraine near the present stables was our "Ski Hill" and the scene of our early ski school. It will be remembered that at that time the Wawona Tunnel superseding the old Inspira- *This register and other documents relating to early-day skiing in Yosemite, listed at the end of this article, comprise an appendix which Mrs. Tresidder has also donated to the historical files of the Yosemite Museum Library.—Ed.

lion Point grade was not even begun, nor the Glacier Point Road; bringing the Big Oak Flat and the Tioga Roads to modern standards was not even being debated as yet. Later we headed to Chinquapin and then took our skiers up the old Glacier Point Road to its high point at Badger Pass, a little way beyond the meadow where the ski development now has its headquarters. Meanwhile the Snow Creek Cabin, located on the westerly slope of Mt. Watkins at about 7,650 feet elevation, gave an opportunity to those skiers who wanted more extensive ski terrain than the valley afforded. Skiers had to be hardy. In a mild winter we could ride on horses all the way up the Tenaya Zigzags to the rim, about 2 1/2 miles from the cabin, or even to the cabin itself before the snow became too deep, with the horses floundering through the drifts of the last ascent. Sometimes we could ride only part way to the rim, and on occasion we hiked and skied all the way up, and we usually came down on foot. The picture below shows the rigging evolved by the packer, Kenneth Hanville, for carrying the skis on a horse. Packer Kenneth Hanville and his ski-carrying rig on "Coon." In a brief history of western skiing published in the British Ski Year Book for 1939, Vol. X, No. 20, Joel Hildebrand says: The first hut system for ski-mountaineering in the Sierra started in the Yosemite National Park in 1929. In that year, Snow Creek Ski Cabin was built and cabins at Tenaya Lake and Tuolumne Meadows converted for winter use. These were heavily stocked with food in the fall of each year, and during the winter months high-mountain trips were operated at fairly frequent intervals under the leadership of Jules Fritsch, one of the most competent ski guides in California. In 1930, Fritsch led the first ascent of Mt. Hoffmann from the Snow Creek Cabin as a base. He conducted parties from the Tenaya Cabin for the first ascent of Tenaya Peak, and from the Tuolumne Cabin he conducted parties over Tioga Pass up Ragged Peak, over Vogelsang Pass, Mammoth Peak, and the Lyell Fork. Plans for the Snow Creek Cabin were drawn by Eldridge T. Spencer, with Dr. Tresidder poring over them and making suggestions. We had a book of pictures and plans of Swiss mountain huts, I remember, which we referred to. Bill Kat did a good deal of the work on the cabin, and Dick Michaelis, later the caretaker there, and Jules Fritsch, the little Swiss ski instructor, also worked on it. It had a kitchen with a woodburning stove and a metal-lined hidey-hole to keep supplies safe from the bears (vain hope!), a narrow passage with two bunk-beds, and a larger room with a table and six more bunks. A steep, narrow stairway led to the loft, which was divided into two rooms with cots for six or eight people. The cabin stood at the edge of a wood near a swampy meadow, and there a well was dug. Digging out the well-cover from the snow was one of the first things to be done each time we went up to the cabin. A couple of hundred yards to the south was a small dome (known to us as Herringbone Hill) which we used as a practice slope, but our main run

came down from Mt. Watkins by Jules was our ski guide and any one of several routes, and that mentor, thoroughly familiar with entailed a climb of about a thousand snow and mountains in all their feet. The energetic ones would climb aspects, and possessing a tremenup two or three times in a day and dous sense of responsibility for these perhaps run down below the cabin ski-crazy, irresponsible Americans several hundred feet, as far as the he was trying to work with and look snow was good, but it was usually out for. He was a stickler for doing better above. things as they should be done. On The ridge which runs toward one of our trips Ansel Adams made Snow Flat was named Monticola a very dynamic picture of him in the Ridge by us for the handsome pines midst of a jump turn, an extremely that grow along it, and we made effective shot, which was widely many excursions there, too. We used in our publicity and as a cover would head for May Lake or Mt. for ski magazines, etc. But his skis Hoffmann, or drop down into Tenwere not in the proper parallel posiMile Meadow, climb the ridge above ton at the moment, and I think Jules Hidden Lake and descend that never quite forgave Ansel for using slope to the meadow again, or run that photograph instead of a much out toward the dome beyond Mt. tamer but more correct one. Watkins, which we called Tenaya The sheet from the register which Dome. This has a spectacular view gives the names of the first visitors of Clouds Rest and the depths of to the Snow Creek Cabin on January Tenaya Canyon, with its glacier, 1930, is missing; my recollection sculptured walls. I can still hear the is that it was a group of employees sharp crack and the boom of avawhom we wished to inform about the lanches as they broke loose from cabin and the skiing there because those walls after a storm, and see they were in touch with guests. We the cascading snow there or below rode all the way to the cabin that Half Dome.

In spite of our inexperience we never had any serious accidents in our winter days there, except for the time Jules dislocated his shoulder on a trip up Mt. Hoffmann, near the end of our sojourns at the cabin. I don't think it must have been in 1934 (Appendix, No. 4). After all this preliminary talk I will go down the pages of the register to recall other interesting details. On February 17, 1930, I note that Jules Fritsch brought up Fred Pabst of Milwaukee, a "real skier," with experience abroad, and they made the first winter ascent of Mt. Hoffmann. I still remember with what respect we watched Fred Pabst's jump turns! The Telemark turn was the thing in those days, with stemming in the Swiss style and a little effort at the "scissors" or "open" Christiania; both Telemark

Ski bindings were different then, of course; we probably did not attain such speeds as even novices may do nowadays with modern techniques of checking and turning, even though we sometimes thought we rode the wind. I suppose, too, we were conscious of the remoteness of the place, and I know Jules exerted an influence of caution on that account. account. and open Christie are now in limbo.

Stemming, Swiss style, was our meat The list of names for the first year for daily practice, however, and is rather short, 56, to be exact, but Jules was a firm taskmaster. the next winter it increased materially and in the spring Dr. Tresidder wrote to a friend that he was very much heartened by the response and hoped that another season we could keep the cook there throughout, which would lessen the expense for visitors. One event of that first winter was the arrival of a number of members of a visiting polo team from the Argentine. They arrived on horseback in a blinding snowstorm, muffled to the ears and frozen withal. As we had no short-wave radio in those days arrivals were unheralded unless someone had come through with messages. The South Americans were plucky but not really ski-minded or equipped. I see that in February 1931 I stayed from the 1st to the 21st, and wrote myself down as "oldest living inhabitant." Many of the Yosemite minded or equipped. Valley people came and went, Photo courtesy of Yosemite Park and Curry Company

Through the winters from 1930 to 1934—the Hosses, the Oehlmanns, the Goldsworthys, and Doris Schmiedell being among the most interested, and many were our expeditions. A number of doctors and their wives came, too; for some reason doctors took to skiing at a great rate in its pioneer days in California; some had studied in Austria or Germany and had a taste of skiing, for one thing, and then many of our friends were doctors and the enthusiasm was contagious. Rea Ashley, Ned and Billy Butler, Otto and Margit Barkan, Hans and Friedel Klussmann, Dohrmann and Margery Pischel, all from San Francisco; Bill and Dorothy Grishaw, from Los Angeles; and Hartley Dewey, who was our Yosemite doctor at that time, were among them. And one of Dr. Dewey's assistants, Jack Blemer, took his bride there for a skiing honeymoon, being careful to pick a time when they would have the place to themselves! We could sometimes hear the cubs mewling in its depths; they are born during hibernation of the mother.

National Park Service rangers en route to Yosemite Creek or Tuolumne Meadows would stop in on their snow-survey trips, and each spring we sent several men to fill the snow houses at Tuolumne Meadows and at Merced Lake—our means of refrigeration there. Jules Fritsch and Ralph dePfyffer (another Swiss skier who is still with us, but nowadays in charge of the darkroom) made that trip in 1930, and with them Ansel Adams, who made photographs of that high country in winter. * They made an ascent of Tenaya Peak, and from Tuolumne Meadows they went over Tuolumne Pass and on to Merced Lake, and came back thrilled by those peaks and canyons. Ansel came up to Snow Creek several times to make skiing pictures: I remember him descending from a good-sized pine on Mt. Watkins, which he had climbed in order to get the perspective looking down from above us. It was after a snowstorm, and by the time he got down most of the snow was off the tree and a lot of it down his neck, and he had the gift of tongues.

In '32, and that was notable for our discovery of two bear dens—one near the top of Mt. Watkins, covered that night by a heavy fall of snow so that we couldn't find it again, and the other down near the bridge across Snow Creek, near the foot of an old stump. On January 16 we saw the footprints of the mother bear where she had apparently gone down to the stream for water, and thereafter we would make a detour on our trips back and forth, in order to check on the hole. A little later

Bert Harwell, park naturalist then, came up on March 2 with Ralph Anderson in a rather skeptical frame of mind to see the place and try to get some pictures, but when one of them put his arm down in the hole to set off a flash bulb he retreated in great haste with claw marks to show for it!

On March 4, 1932, Dennis Jones of Soda Springs and Milana Blank, a German woman who had lectured with slides on "The Radiance of Ski" earlier in the winter in Yosemite, came through after making the first winter crossing of Tioga Pass. They had hitchhiked most of the way from Lake Tahoe to Mono Lake, and then crossed on skis, spending the night out in Ten-Mile Meadow in a snowstorm, after almost going into the depths of Tenaya Canyon itself because the trail blazes were obscured by snow.

'See photograph on cover.—Ed.

Ralph Anderson Mount Hoffmann viewed from Snow Flat in winter. One night that I remember vividly, in 1931 or 1932, Don and I climbed to the top of Mt. Watkins with three or four others to watch the moon rise. We skied about in the moonlight for an hour or so, with an eerie feeling of being in another world, and then we skied down through the trees to the cabin. Shadows and highlights made it hard to tell a bump from a hollow, I recall, but we arrived intact. Our prize trip to Tuolumne Meadows was written up by me for the British Ski Year Book, as well as an account of one of our climbs of Mt. Hoffmann (Appendix, Nos. 5, 6). For the Snow Creek Cabin, Della Hoss and I composed or four others to watch the moon the "Skier's Ten Commandments " rise. We skied about in the moonlight (Appendix, No. 7). She made an illufor an hour or so, with an eerie feelminated copy which we framed and ing of being in another world, and hung there, but, alas!—some vandal then we skied down through the made away with it. I later saw it trees to the cabin. Shadows and printed in an eastern ski magazine, highlights made it hard to tell a without due credit. bump from a hollow, I recall, but we One incident that lingers in mind arrived intact. is the picture of an afternoon when Canasta was not in the running a group of us on Herringbone Hill then, and bridge was much too serwere watching the descent of several ious, but " Concentration" and skiers from Mt. Watkins through the "Hearts" were frequent of an evetrees. Ned Butler was one; I forget nine—when we weren't waxing our who else, except that Fritsch was skis under the stern eye of Mr. leading. Suddenly at an open place Fritsch. Putting a ground-wax on we saw him describe a complete your skis was serious business then, somersault, land on his feet, and ski before the day of the modern lacquer on, apparently not even momentarfinishes; the base wax had to be reily disconcerted. When he got down newed often, and had to be ironed we said, "Jules, what on earth was in smoothly, then allowed to harden. that maneuver you did up there, Then 1933, and there were more coming through the trees?" Oh," he trips to May Lake and to Mt. Hoffreplied, "I see I am going to fall, I mann and way stations. Our prize make myself as less as possible, I trip to Tuolumne Meadows was writam on my feet, I go on!" So making ten up by me for the British Ski Year oneself as less as possible became a Book, as well as an account of one of byword.

With the spring of 1934 our skiing Road and the Glacier Point Road, at Snow Creek came to an end. I greater accessibility led us to the find that I spent nearly three months Badger Pass area, where Jules and I there during its five seasons. We had had also been reconnoitering. Howcovered the country around there ever, for unrivaled ski terrain, I and found it good, but with the constill give the palm to Mt. Hoffmann struction of the Wawona Tunnel and and its slopes.

APPENDIX IN THE YOSEMITE MUSEUM LIBRARY

The following items which relate to Mrs. Tresidder's manuscript have been deposited with it in the Yosemite Museum Library.—Ed. 1. register of the Snow Creek Lodge. 2. Letter from Dr. Tresidder to Dr. Rea Ashley about Snow Creek Lodge and ski tours. 3. Rates for ski tours — 1929. 4. Note about Jules Fritsch's accident on Mt. Hoffmann. 5. Account of trip to Tuolumne Meadows, from The British Ski Year Book 7(15), 1934. 6. Account of trip to Mt. Hoffmann, from The British Ski Year Book 6(13), 1932. 7. The Ski-runner's Ten Commandments, and Ski Maxims.

JAYS WARN OF RATTLESNAKE'S PRESENCE

By Douglass H. Hubbard, Associate Park Naturalist While my wife and I were sitting in our back yard in the Lost Arrow residential area of Yosemite Valley at about 5:15 p.m. on August 25, 1952, our attention was attracted by the continuous and excited squawking of a blue-fronted jay (Cyanocitta stelleri frontalis) on the roof of a nearby garage. This jay was promptly joined by others until there were eight of them on the garage roof and on the woodpile stacked against its west wall. A Sierra ground squirrel (Citellus beecheyi sierrae) ran from near the woodpile, pausing on the rock wall of a diversion ditch at the rear of the building before continuing up the slope as we approached. Close examination revealed the presence of a Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis oreganus) coiled on a smooth board at the bottom of the woodpile. At no time did the snake rattle, nor did it move until it was taken from its place of refuge by means of a long stick. Mr. Charles Hill, a neighbor, reports that a rattlesnake has been Blue-fronted jay found at the rear of this residence each summer for the last three years, and that on two of these occasions the reptile's presence was announced by the blue-fronted jays. Perhaps the warning given by these birds is more dependable than that which may or may not be given by the rattlesnake.

RALPH ANDERSON, PARK VETERAN, TRANSFERS TO WASHINGTON

By Donald Edward McHenry, Park Naturalist Ralph Hopewell Anderson, a vetprominent easterners at a camp eran of 23 years with the National near Tucson, Arizona. While there Park Service in Yosemite National he was encouraged to apply for a Park, has been transferred to the job as temporary park ranger in director's office of the service in Washington, D.C., as information specialist with the Information Division. He left Yosemite on January 17. In February of the following year his appointment was made permanent.

Ralph has earned enviable recognition for himself throughout the National Park Service and particularly in Yosemite. Whatever community project arose here, Ralph was either leading it or in some manner in the thick of it. His work directing fund-raising drives in support of the Red Cross, cancer program, or the like is well known.

It was while riding his white horse on campground inspection in Camp 12 in Yosemite Valley one day that Ralph helped a vacationing family put up their tent. In this family was an attractive young lady who in September 1931 became Mrs. Ralph H. Anderson, or Millie to her many Yosemite friends. This beloved school gram, or the like is well known, teacher to children of the local gramDuring the first year of its organizamar school for the past several years. tion Ralph directed the affairs of the The Anderson ' s 16-year-old photoYosemite Community Council, a genic daughter Barbara Jean has group made up of representatives appeared in many park photographs from the more than 30 organizations as well as pictures which Ralph has supported by permanent residents of taken for other purposes. Yosemite Valley. As an active memThis interest in photography was ber of the Yosemite Lions Club, destined to make Ralph well known Ralph has served in many capacities and admired far beyond the boundas well as having taken part in its aries of Yosemite National Park, for spring plays. In fact, wherever there was some help to be given or service to be performed, there was Ralph—always cheerful, encouraging, enthusiastic and self-effacing.

This interest in photography was destined to make Ralph well known and admired far beyond the boundaries of Yosemite National Park, for he developed considerable skill in this field of graphic art. It is little wonder, therefore, that he was promoted to park photographer and information clerk in 1932. In a later year he passed a Civil Service examination for information specialist, but because of his love for Yosemite

Ralph entered the National Park Service in Yosemite, after having served for 5 years with the U. S. Forest Service in the Skull Valley and his desire to remain here he did District of the Prescott National Fornot accept offered appointments in est, Arizona, where he became the this capacity which would have district ranger. Then, after attending taken him from Yosemite. the University of Cincinnati in order The responsibilities of Ralph's to further the studies he had started work here were at first relatively some time before at Ohio State Unilight, but little by little he assumed versity, he took employment teachmore duties until he was not only ing horseback riding to children of taking official photographs and an-

D. H. Hubbard Ralph H. Anderson swering the myriads of inquiries which came to the administration office but he was also made chief liaison officer with the park concessionaires as well as being designated to conduct visiting celebrities about the park. Just a few of these personages whom Ralph recalls are Marconi, the inventor, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Crown Prince Frederick and Princess Ingrid of Denmark, Charles Edward, Duke of SaxeCoburg-Gotha, Senators Warren *Yosemite Nature_ Notes 30(5) :43-46, May 1951. Austin and Hiram Johnson, Lauritz Melchior, and Rt. Hon. Ralph Assheton and Arthur Blenkinsop, M.P. Because of his increasing responsibilities Ralph's position was ultimately reclassified to administrative assistant, the position which he left to go to Washington. The Yosemite Natural History Association owes Ralph a great debt of gratitude. Not only has he been a member of the board of trustees of the association since 1940 but he is the author of numerous articles published in Yosemite Nature Notes. Most of these deal with local history, a field in which he is genuinely interested and very well informed. When asked which article he had the most fun writing he unhesitatingly said it was "We Will Pitch Camp at Bridalveil!" an account of President Theodore Roosevelt ' s historic visit to Yosemite in 1903. * Readers of this booklet know that its pages have frequently been illustrated by Ralph 's excellent photographs. These contributions and the memory of his good deeds, and the splendid record of accomplishment by both Ralph and Millie Anderson in our community will long recall them to their many friends in Yosemite.