Sierra Club. Keeping pace with the Sierra Club’s conservation efforts, members were also very active in the mountaineering field. As usual Yose- mite Valley provided much of the challenge and new ascents. Most noteworthy of the new climbs that were completed was a new route on the east face of Washington Column. Some of the members of this party then went to the high country of Yosemite Park to climb the formidable west face of Mount Conness (12,556 feet) for an excellent new route on this often climbed peak. Although Mount Whitney is no longer the U.S.A.’s highest peak, it is still a prime attraction and provided a new east face route which, according to the climbers, is the most direct route yet completed on that face.

The club also sponsored a real wilderness outing to the Mount Waddington area in British Columbia led by Allen Steck. Several peaks around Waddington were climbed including Mount Munday from the west.

A new development within the club was the creation in Southern California of a mountain rescue unit with headquarters in Los Angeles. California now has two active rescue units operating under the Sierra Club.

Richard C. Houston, Chairman, Mountaineering Committee