Dear Aunt Mamie,

Thanks to the Carson-Donaldson family for donating Jessie May Carson's letter and photos. Her letter appears below as transcribed by her family from her original letter. Miss Carson's camera was lost during her 1908 climb. Some photos used here may be from later trips; however, photos are from her album unless noted otherwise. This is the transcription of a letter written by my Great Aunt, Jessie May Carson, addressed to her Aunt Mamie (she had two aunts with this nickname and we think it might have been written to her father’s sister, Mary Carson McLaughlin because the letter references the other aunt, Mary Carson Hastings). It was then sent on to other family members and saved to give to my father. Some of the spellings were likely updated by the computer to more standard English of 2021.

Sunday, August 9, 1908

Dear Aunt Mamie, 

I am going to begin at the start of our trip and tell you as it happened – the crowd was as follows, Mrs. Post, Edith and Anna Post, Mr. & Mrs. Robison (Admiral Clark’s daughter & her husband, friends of Alice’s) Miss Drake & Miss Hard (two seminary teachers) Miss Dally & Miss Clancey (two Tacoma friends of mine) Mrs. Dow (a friend of Miss Dally’s), Alice & myself. We left Tacoma Saturday August first at 1:30 P.M. Arrived at Ashford Wash. At 4 P.M.

Took a stage and drove for 3 hours through a beautiful pine forest where the trees are 10 to 15 feet in diameter at base and rising straight as a line to the heights of 200 to 500 feet and more – The ride was glorious.

We reached Longmire’s Spring’s hotel in time for 7 P.M. dinner – It’s 2800 feet up – Ralph Clarke, Mr. Morrow, Mr. Hayden and some other people we know were there and we spent the first evening walking around with them, but we went to bed fairly early.

The next morning we packed gunny sacks with the clothes we needed and sent them up to Reese’s camp by pack horse. Horses can’t carry suit cases very well as the trail is narrow, so we left them at Longmire’s. This morning, Sunday, the whole crowd started about 8:30 to walk up to Reese’s camp which is 7 miles from Longmire’s on a steady up grade as it is 6000 feet up. We did not arrive at Reese’s until about 1:30 P.M. and oh Aunt Mamie, the walk was lovely.

The tallest trees, the softest pine trail, big rocks, and jagged roots of trees to cross and the dashing Paradise River which is clear as crystal. The Narada Falls on this river are as grand as Niagara – as tall but not as wide – as we neared Reese’s camp which is in Paradise Valley, we just held our breath, the beauty was so wonderful. There is nothing in the Rockies that I have seen to equal it or even touch it in any way.

Reese’s camp is nothing more than a large tent for dining room, a smaller tent for an office, then about 15 sleeping tents – It seems to be nestled right at the base of Mt. Tacoma and directly opposite is the Tatoosh Range with Pinnacle Peak . The postal shows green grass on the ground which is correct for some years, but this year the ground was almost completely covered with snow. Where our tent stood there was 10 feet of snow just 3 weeks ago, and behind our tent not 10 feet away was a field of snow. All the time we were there we crossed & recrossed it to get a drink of water. Unfortunately for me, the first walk from Longmire up to Reese’s got me into trouble with my feet.

My spiked shoes were too large and rubbed blisters in my heels and all the time I was away, I was doctoring those heels to keep them from hurting me too much. We wore shirt waists and bloomers, & spiked shoes all the time & our heavy sweaters in the early morning and evenings.

When we reached Reese’s camp Sunday at 1:30 we were all pretty tired as it was our first walk, none of us were in training except Alice, who has climbed all over the Green Mountains that her leg muscles toughened – My muscles from the knee to the thigh even, sore to the touch – So we rested around during the afternoon fixing up our tents etc.

After supper, Alice, Miss Dally, Miss Hard, myself & Mr. Wilson a nice young fellow we met during the afternoon, all walked down to the Y.M.C.A. camp to see some people we knew. We were feeling rested by that time, so when Mr. Wilson suggested to Miss Hard and myself that we climb to Alta Vista we agreed and started. It was dark but the heavens were full of stars and there was almost a half moon – oh the weather the whole week was perfect – Alta Vista is a high plateau probably 1000 feet higher than Y.M.C.A. camp & you have to climb over pretty perpendicular rocks to get to it – It seemed stiff to us that night but it is nothing compared to what we did afterwards.

When we got to the top, we could see Mt Adams and Mt St. Helens, both snow-capped peaks hundreds of miles away, so you can imagine how clear the atmosphere was. Coming back I had my first gorgeous slide. Almost all the way back was over a snow field so we three sat down, held each other tightly, and let ourselves go & we went like lightning.

Mr. Wilson had examined this way before & knew there were no crevasses. Oh but it was fun – it was an awful slide thinking of it in one way, but everything was on such a grand scale that big things seemed little to us – When we got back to camp, there was a roaring log fire out in front of the dining tent with all the people, about 40, sitting around it getting acquainted. It was like one big family. Some of the men got maple sugar and made taffy having what they call a New England sugaring off which means this – when the taffy was finished, instead of putting it in pans, it was poured out in long strings on the snow to cool. It was great fun.

Well the next day, Monday, we got up early, rested and ready to climb something. We had talked to a guide about going to the top of Mt. Tacoma. He looked us over, questioned us etc. & finally told us to climb Pinnacle Peak first to see what good we were

– Pinnacle Peak is 8000 feet high. You have to cross snow fields galore, then crawl around the side and the final climb of about 3 or 400 feet is up a perpendicular rock with little places to clinch with hands and feet. It is a stiff and dangerous climb with a drop of about 1000 feet if you fall.

But it wasn’t an impossible climb at all & the guide (Joe Stampfler) knew that if we lost our nerve here, there would be no possibility of our reaching the top of Mt. Tacoma – So. Mr. Wilson, Mr. Fogle, another man at camp, Miss Hard, Miss Dally & myself did it. Lena Clancey & Miss Drake went about ¼ of the way and stopped – But the rest of us did it and enjoyed it greatly although there were times when our hearts were in our mouths – It took us all day and although we were tired when we got back to camp, our leg muscles were limbered but no longer sore – But I mustn’t forget the fun of coming back over the snow fields – The return from Alta Vista was nothing, for, with the sliding down Pinnacle was the ever present danger of falling over rocks & crevasses

– we slid in every direction sometimes going so fast that we turned somersaults but the two men were so alert & careful that no harm came to us – once Miss Hard started at a terrific rate towards a rock & was stopped by Mr. Fogle throwing himself across her feet & digging his spiked shoes into the snow – and once I started so suddenly that I threw Mr. Fogle & carried him along with me. I thought we never would stop in time, but Mr. Fogle kept his head & his shoes finally stuck hard enough to stop us.

Thinking of all this as I sit here in my little room, it seems terrifically dangerous but we didn’t consider it then as we were doing big things all the time, our lives were in constant danger & each thing we did seemed only a little harder than the last. And we were young, strong, careful & full of enthusiasm. My heels were in such bad shape when we got back that I went to bed to rest them. Isn’t it a shame to think I had that to contend with, but I didn’t give into it – Well on Tuesday we rested doing very little climbing and getting our climbing shoes thoroughly dry – During all these climbs, your feet & legs are wet halfway up & your shoes just soaked.

Well we went to bed Tuesday night about 10 P.M., Wednesday morning at 1 AM. Joe (the guide) wakened us & after a hot cup of coffee & some bread & butter, Joe, Dr. Grimes & his 12 year old son, Alice, Miss Dally & myself started for the top of Mt Tacoma – Oh when I think of it now from the safe shelter of my little room, I shudder down to the depths of my being – Had we ever dreamed of one hundredth part of what was ahead to go through, we never would have considered it for a moment. But we didn’t know & so we started out cheerfully in the middle of the night 2:30 AM. We walked on over snow fields and rocks ever up & up & up, stopping and resting every 10 or 20 minutes until 6:40 AM. when we reached a high level about 8000 ft. called Camp Muir.

Aunt Mamie I hope I shall never forget as long as I live the glories of that early morning sunrise – I can’t describe it but it was marvelous – It seemed as the stars faded away, as though there were a sea of deep blue mist. Through this mist gradually appeared the numerous ranges of mountains, growing clearer and clearer as the sun rose higher; until at last we were far above the clouds which shut out all the valleys, and only the mountain ranges were visible rising out of it, with the snow-capped peaks of Mt Adams, Mt St. Helens, Mt. Hood and Mt Jefferson in the foreground and grand old Mt Tacoma at our back – as far as the eye could reach were mountains, mountains, mountains – When at last it seemed as though some giant hand reached down and took hold of the blue mist and stretched it right up into the sky into the perfect outline of Mt. Tacoma – This shadow of the Mt. in the sky is rarely seen, but once seen, never forgotten – And can you imagine our luck. We saw it a second time the last night in camp by sunset.

But the morning view was by far more wonderful and clear – We reached Camp Muir at 6:40 where we stopped for breakfast. The climb this far is not dangerous as the crevasses in the snow are well known and can be avoided. But it is the first of the trip when you are not wakened up yet & the last field of snow before we reached Muir seemed so everlasting that I questioned in my heart whether I could go on – We left Camp Muir at 7:15 and then the climb was in earnest – There is a long line of rock called the elevator that begins at Muir and ends with Gibraltar 2500 feet from the crater – We don’t stick to the rock always but have numerous snow fields and solid ice fields to cut our way up, as steps have to be cut out for us. Some of these ice fields are so perpendicular that we didn’t dare look behind us. Our only salvation was to look forward & onward. And some of the places we zigzagged around were fearful.

Well we reached Gibraltar rock about 10 A.M. the worst time in the day to go round it as with the hot sun, the rocks and snow are loosened & come dashing down all around the trail – Joe told us that not one party in ten escaped without someone being hit & hurt.

The trail around Gibraltar rock is awful. It takes about 2 hours to go round it. The pathway is sometimes just wide enough for your feet but rocks above project out in such a way that you can’t walk straight but have to cling to these projecting rocks to get around them & if you slip you drop in some places 2 to 3000 feet, hit Nisqually glacier which would carry you clear down to Longmire’s only 2800 feet high & Gibraltar rock is 12000 feet high. Besides these projecting rocks the pathway often times was on a perilous slant covered with crumbling rock. Oh Aunt Mamie it was dreadful & I don’t see how we did it. But as I said before, each thing we tackled was just a little harder than the last & we didn’t realize the big things we were doing – And I’m proud of us for never once did we lose our nerve & we did it with our own strength for we were never tied together once.

The guides here don’t tie people together at all & Joe never helped us. We called to him many times saying “Oh Joe we can’t do this without your help” but each time he would say “Yes you can, come on girls, you can do it” and we did. He was right. Had he started helping us we should have lost our nerve depended upon him too much. Also, he never spoke kindly to us but commanded us in a stern voice & we obeyed partly through fear of him. He is a nice gentle man but he knew how to make us do it. Kindness would have been fatal

– Well after climbing and crawling around Gibraltar for two hours, guess what faced us before we could get to the top of the rock – nothing more or less than this, a solid wall of ice perpendicular 300 feet high

– Down the side of the rock is stretched two ropes. You take hold of both of them in your right hand, stick your alpine stock into the ice with your left hand and walk up this wall of ice on the steps the guides cut out for you as he goes on ahead – Your whole life depends upon the strength of your right arm holding your whole weight, for none of us were skillful enough to bear much on our stocks to help us. As you know girls arms are not used to holding their weight

– First, I don’t see how we had the strength to do it, and second, I don’t see how we had the nerve. I did take one quick glance down, then I faced forward with a shudder & never once looked backward again. But my nerve held good and I was the first girl up.

One thing I want to say here, when we rest, we never lie down. We rest by throwing our weight forward on our alpine stocks. We never sat down from camp until we had breakfast at Muir, then not again until we got to Gibraltar rock. Also we are not allowed to drink water as snow water takes your strength. We hadn’t had a drink of water since we left camp until we got to the top of Gibraltar rock – And one reason why I think I had the courage to climb was that Joe said “Come now girls there’s water on top for you” I would have climbed ten times higher for one drop of water. When we reached the top we fell flat on our backs to rest. Miss Dally was down & out. She was faint and had to be left on the rock. It was a shame that she had done all the hardest climbing.

What remained was a 3 hours climb over a snow field filled with dangerous crevasses. It is one of the easiest places to lose your life as new snow covers these crevasses and even the guide cannot be sure of where he is, but it is only a test of one’s endurance to cover it & get to the top; But Miss Dally was so faint that she did not dare go forward – And now let me say before I go on, that nine men out of ten never get to the top of Gibraltar rock. Because they lose their nerve, or because they are faint or because have mountain sickness which is caused by the altitude & is like sea sickness. Alice and I made up our minds that if any of these things over took us or if our hearts or lungs played out that we would not be fools and try to go on. But after resting not more than 10 minutes at the top of the rock, we knew our hearts & lungs were all right but never have I been so tired. Where I got the nerve to get up let alone go on, I don’t know but I did it. And here was where one big mistake was made. I had on a long sleeved cotton shirt and a cotton shirtwaist on. My heavy sweater had been tied around my waist since I left Muir as I had not needed it. Joe had on two woolen shirts & did not realize that difference. So when he told us to leave our sweaters with Miss Dally we were glad to rid ourselves of their weight.

Then we started out over the dangerous snow field – Oh the crevasses are wonderful and awe inspiring. Facing Gibraltar rock on both sides is the famous White River glacier which is pure white and filled with these awful crevasses – It must be 3 or 4000 feet high perpendicular and absolutely impassable – Well we hadn’t been 15 minutes out when the awful piercingly cold wind came down upon us right in the face – It took us 3 hours to make the crater and for 2:45 minutes I was fighting against freezing cold. The wind was blowing about 40 miles an hour. First my hand holding my stock grew numb then, my arm, then both arms and at last I fret that there wasn’t a thing alive in me but my spirit. I was afraid I would fall over every minute then I never could have got up.

I just watched the guide’s feet, lifting mine as he did his, wondering each time if I could do it just once more. I had been next to the guide & finally Alice asked if I would drop behind in her place & let her go next to Joe as she felt she could not move another step without seeing Joe to inspire her. This put me right in front of the Dr. Suddenly I said “Dr hit me on the shoulders as hard as you can to start the circulation.” This thought saved me. The Dr had the strength to do this and about every five minutes we stopped & the Dr hit me several times. And as I took each step I bowed my whole body to make myself take a deep breath – Had my lungs failed me, I should have dropped but with the Dr hitting me & my deep breaths I kept myself alive until we reached the top. The most awful 3 hours I ever spent. When we reached the top, the guide took off his top shirt & put it on me. It was all I needed – Had I worn my sweater I should have had nothing to consider but making my legs move. I don’t see how I did it, how I had the vitality, endurance and the courage. As soon as the shirt was put on me I was all right. But Alice, who had been warm climbing as she had a woolen waist on, fell in a dreadful chill. Also the boy. Dr. Grimes & the guide took Alice & sandwiched her between them while I rubbed her legs, then I took the boy in my arms & held him tight and rubbed him – Having to care for these two made me all the warmer & was good for me

– After about 15 minutes Joe went for the register which is kept in the crater. I wrote my name & the others wrote theirs – Now listen to this, Alice and I are the first two women who ever climbed to the top of Mt. Tacoma in one day. All other women have camped at Muir over night. We are the first women to be registered in the crater this year and we will be the first women to be registered in Washington D.C. as ever climbing to the top as they just began making note of this in Washington this year. We are eligible now to become members of any mountaineering club in the world. Very very few women have ever got to the top, 9 men out of 10 fail.

Mt Tacoma is the highest mountain in the U.S. & one of the hardest to climb. Think of it. We are heroines. The crater looked like a field of snow. It was surrounded by a rim of lava. There are great ice caves around the craters where the steam comes up. We didn’t go into any of these caves as we hadn’t time or strength. We stayed at the top about ¾ of an hour then started down. Our 3 hr. climb was covered going down in an hour – Miss Dally says she hates to think of us as she saw us after we reached her again. She said the strain in our faces made us horrible to look at. I know this is true for when I looked at Alice going up I was shocked at the expression on her face. You see we blacked our faces before we left Muir. This black had got on Alice’s lips, her mouth was open and dry and the lines of her face tense. It was awful – I never shall forget it – Well it is needless to describe the trip home.

We had done the big thing by reaching the crater and all the awful part going home seems kind of vague to me. When we went down Gibraltar rock and had to swing out into space to get down that 300 feet of ice wall, I was too tired to be scared. The instinct of self preservation was the only thing alive about me while I was doing that.

But as we went on leaving the awfulness behind us, my spirit revived. My body grew more tired, my heels hurt cruelly, but my spirit became rested, I wasn’t afraid of anything & when we reached camp we had the energy to whistle and halloo to our expectant friends. We went into the dining room and drank hot milk & ate a little bread and butter. Then Miss Drake & Miss Clancey took Alice & me, bathed us in hot water, rubbed us in alcohol. And one of the men of the camp made us hot whiskey toddy. We were in bed by 10:30 and slept like logs until 8 A.M.

Then we got up to be lionized. 32 people came up from Longmire’s that day & with the rest of the people in camp just followed us about with admiring eyes. On all sides we heard such expressions “There she goes” “That’s one of them” etc etc. And to have been the first women who ever did it in one day. – I told Alice I was going home before I got too swollen a head – I didn’t tell you all we were allowed to eat at Muir. All we had was canned pears with the juice to drink & oh how good it was, raisins, dried prunes & cold coffee. No water.

Then I forgot to tell you that the view from the top was superb. Besides all the mountain peaks I’ve mentioned before, we saw Mt. Baker away off in Canada.

You know, I never realized how the girls who stayed behind would feel. They said nothing before we left but it seems they were almost crazy all day for fear something would happen to us. Prof Flett & 3 boys came down that day and met us at the rock. Well our party saw them coming down, saw there were only 4 thinking they were us wondered what had happened to the other 2 of our party. This frightened them then one of these 3 boys was so sick that he fell every few minutes – The person looking through the glasses down at camp said that the person falling was a girl & Miss Drake said she was almost beside herself. Well Prof Flett & his boys arrived in camp in the afternoon & allayed these fears but only to make them more nervous for he said we were going around Gibraltar at just the worst time of the day for falling rock and so late that if we reached the summit at all we would have to sleep in the crater.

It seems it’s a dreadful thing to sleep in the crater. You are sure to be sick if you do and so the girls were worried to death.

You may be sure they received us with open arms & kissed us in spite of our blackened faces – And oh how good it felt to be washed and rubbed. We rested all day Thursday you may be sure, lying under the pine trees. We had a nice visit in the evening

– Then Alice, Miss Dally and I got up at 4 A.M. walked the seven miles down to Longmire springs, got there at 7, had breakfast, took 7:30 stage to train which left at 10 from Ashford.

We got to Tacoma at 12:30, went to Miss Dally’s for lunch. Then Alice took boat to Seattle where I first took a bath then had a shampoo and manicure. The post had already left in the middle of the week. Miss Clancey & Miss Drake came home Saturday & Miss Hard comes home today – I intended to stay until today but felt that I should rest & not climb anymore & I was afraid that if I stayed longer I wouldn’t rest as I should. Then I wanted the trip home with Alice as she leaves so soon – and I’m glad I did, for after getting clean on Friday I went to bed and stayed there until Saturday dinner getting thoroughly rested. Now I feel all right except that my heels are still in an angry condition.

And the early morning walk from Reese’s camp down to Longmire’s was lovely, the stage drive so beautiful – I hated to leave it all. I wish you all could see it.

Now I think this letter will give you a little idea, also the postals. It’s over now, I’m happy that I’ve done it but I don’t expect to repeat it – Alice will tell you about it when she sees you in September. She’ll telephone you when she gets to Pittsburgh. I want you to invite her out to dinner, have Mame, Will & Wee over to hear all about me & to meet her. Have a nice dinner & make the kids behave. Before I close I must tell you of a heart breaking thing – I carried mother’s little camera all the way to the crater & in spite of my condition took pictures & coming back it dashed into a crevasse with all those pictures I’ll never get again. It was strapped to Joe but got loose somehow – He said he would take a look for it sometime but they are gone for good. Isn’t it dreadful. I just can’t think of it.

Love to all from Jess.