=_The Skyline Trail_= is that portion of the trail system which connects the Indian Paintbrush, Cascade Canyon, and Death Canyon Trails. Following down the north fork, then up the south fork of Cascade Canyon, it crosses the head of Avalanche Canyon to Alaska Basin, in the western watershed of the Tetons, thence over a high saddle on Buck Mountain and down a series of switchbacks to join the Death Canyon Trail. This trail takes the hiker, or rider, through alpine meadows to rugged cliffs and ledges above timber line from which can be viewed to the westward the valleys and mountains of Idaho, as well as the Wyoming country to the east as far as the Wind River Range. In traversing this loop one completely encircles the three Tetons and adjacent high peaks, viewing them from all sides, and learns to know them with an intimacy impossible to the visitor who contents himself with distant views. MOUNTAIN CLIMBING Among American climbers no range enjoys higher rank than the Tetons, and its growing fame abroad is evidenced by increasingly large numbers of foreign mountaineers who come here to climb. Leading mountaineers unhesitatingly rank many of the Teton climbs with the best in the Alps and other world-famous climbing centers. Though the majority of climbs must be considered difficult even for mountaineers of skill and wide experience, there are several peaks, notably the Middle Teton, South Teton, and Mount Woodring, which have relatively easy routes that may be safely followed by anyone of average strength. Although the conquest of the Tetons has largely been accomplished within the decade just closed, the beginnings of mountaineering go back nearly a century. Naturally the Grand Teton was first to be challenged and the Wyoming historian, Coutant, records that in 1843 a French explorer, Michaud, with a well-organized party, attempted its ascent but was stopped short of the summit by unscalable cliffs. It is possible that even earlier white men--trappers and explorers--matched their strength and strategy against this peak or others in the Tetons, but if so their efforts have gone unrecorded. From the period of the Hayden surveys in the seventies, accounts of several attempts have come down to us, and one party, consisting of N. P. Langford and James Stevenson, purported to have reached the summit on July 29, 1872. This claim to first ascent has been generally discredited because of the serious discrepancies between Langford's published account and the actual conditions on the peak as now known. In 1891 and again in 1897 William O. Owen, pioneer Wyoming surveyor, headed attempts to reach the summit which likewise failed. Finally in 1898 a party sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Club, of Colorado, and comprising Owen, Bishop Franklin S. Spalding, John Shive, and Frank Petersen, on August 11 discovered the traverse which, 700 feet beneath the summit, leads around the northwest face and so opens up a clear route to the top.