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"In the Heart of the California Alps"
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portrait of John Muir, conservationist, naturalist, writer, mountaineer

In the Heart of the California Alps: a near view of the High Sierra in 1872: account of the first ascent of Mount Ritter.

by John Muir.

Account of the first ascent of Mount Ritter, October, 1872. Record of one of Muir's finest mountain rambles and of the first ascent, a solo one, of this mountain in the Mammoth Lakes country of the eastern Sierra Nevada. Combines natural observations with the adventures and philosophical musings of a nearly fatal climb. Made from a base camp with three artists who were left sketching on the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River late in the season, while Muir ventured into the Minaret country, in 1890 a part of Yosemite National Park but now in the Ansel Adams Wilderness of Inyo National Forest, near Mammoth, California. Three illustrations of Mount Ritter and its region by one of these artists, William Keith, are included. (Keith became an eminent landscape painter, producing many scenes of the West including the Sierra, Yosemite Valley, Mount Shasta, the San Francisco Bay region, and more.) Drawings by Muir are also included, as well as other period illustrations. Foreword by former Yosemite Chief Park Naturalist William R Jones. 24 pages. See sample pages, illustrations.

KEITH AND MUIR:
William Keith (from St Mary's College of California website):
"A 19th-century leading artist and visionary in San Francisco, William Keith (1838-1911) is most known for his impact on preserving and sharing the California landscape through paint and brush. Saint Mary's College Museum of Art cares for the most comprehensive body of work created by this California Master Landscape Painter.

Keith arrived at Muir's cabin in Yosemite Valley with a letter of introduction in 1872, and a lifelong friendship quickly developed. The two Scottish immigrants took camping trips together in the High Sierra, saw each other when Muir was in San Francisco and helped inspire each other's work. The idea for the Sierra Club was first formed in Keith's studio during conversations with Muir, Dr. Joseph LeConte, the first president of the University of California, and Warren Olney, a prominent San Francisco attorney. Muir's concern with scientific accuracy reinforced Keith's early training as a wood engraver in encouraging him to reproduce the exact topography and details of a landscape early in his career. Keith had also already expressed a preference by 1870 to "study altogether from Nature," reflecting in part the admonishments of the influential writer John Ruskin."

ISBN-10: 0-89646-026-6. ISBN-13: 978-0-89646-026-3. Order #: VIST0026 paper$3.95.

 Sample pages and illustrations from In the Heart of the California alps:
Includes "self-portrait" by John Muir
"the South Side of Mt. Lyell", sketched by John Muir
"Mt. Ritter from the West" by William Keith
"View of the Mono Plain from the foot of Bloody Canon" by Thomas Moran.
"Mt. Lyell Group from Tuolumne River" by William Keith
"Glacier between Mts. Ritter and Lyell" by William Keith

            Mt. Lyell Group from Tuolumne River by William Keith

              

 End of "Sample pages and illustrations from In the Heart of the California alps"

This information appears on the internet, giving the names of the party of 5 who were on this trip to the heart of the California alps:
"According to the Sierra Club, William Keith, a landscape artist, met John Muir in October 1872 in Yosemite Valley. Keith carried a letter of introduction from a mutual friend, Jeanne Carr. Floy Hutchings led Keith and two other painters to Muir who was at his cabin below the Royal Arches. Keith inquired whether Muir knew of any views that would make a picture. [Such a question seems surprising for a painter in Yosemite Valley!--ed. Muir replied that he did, and two days later led the group of five (Muir, Keith, Irwin Benoni, Thomas Ross, and Merrill Moores) to the upper Tuolumne River area. As it turned out, Willie and Johnnie, as they soon called each other, were born in the same year in Scotland. They became close friends for the next forty years, until Keith’s death in 1911.

Benoni Irwin (June 29, 1840 – August 26, 1896) was an American portraitist.A pupil of the National Academy of Design in New York City, USA, he trained in Paris with the famous French portraitist Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran (1838–1917). His work was shown in the Exposition Universelle at Paris in 1889, and the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Irwin had studios in San Francisco, Boston, New Bedford, and New York. [From Wikipedia.]

Thomas Ross: Born in Scotland in 1829 (died 1896). In 1850 Ross joined the Gold Rush to California. He later worked in San Francisco as a house painter and as an illustrator for the Morning Call newspaper. Although his works are rare, he is known to have painted mining camp genre, San Francisco street scenes, views of Sausalito, marines, and Yosemite landscapes. Exh: Mechanics' Inst. (SF), 1871-1887; San Francisco Art Association, 1873-87. In: CHS; Oakland Museum.

Merrill Moores: From vault.sierraclub.org: ...in 1872, Merrill, then age 16, spent the summer with Muir in Yosemite. Merrill's later unpublished manuscript strongly suggests that in that year Muir met famed British geologist John Tyndall, though no record by Muir recounts that event. Merrill also spent a week with Muir and Asa Gray, the Harvard botanist, exploring the Yosemite high country. The same summer, Muir met other prominent scientists, including botanist John Torrey, and corresponded with geologist Louis Agassiz. Merrill also accompanied Muir and artist William Keith and two other artists on their first excursion together. [Moores was a] Graduate of Yale University (1978) and law school in Indiana (1880), practiced law in Indianapolis, Indiana. Served ten years as U.S. Representative (7th District, Indiana, Republican) in U.S. Congress beginning in 1915. As a congressman, Moores asked to assigned to the national parks committee, so he could carry on Muir’s work.

Topographic map of Mount Ritter shows several glaciers near the mountain. Today the easier route (said to be the one Muir used in the first ascent) is considered a class 3 mountain climb (on a scale of 1 to 5+), but arduos. Check guidebooks for details and any permit requirements before repeating Muir's climb.

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