"Our club house was started in July, 1910, and was erected by Mr. Mark Weygandt, the worthy mountain guide who has conducted so many parties to the top of Mt. Hood. It is built of white fir logs, all selected there in the forest. I have been told in a letter from the Montreal Amateur Athletic Club of Montreal, Canada, that we have the most unique and up-to-date Snow Shoe Club building in the world. The site for the house was selected by Mr. Horace Mecklem and myself, who made a special trip up there. The building was finished in September, 1910. It is forty feet long and twenty four feet wide, with a six-foot fireplace and a large up-to-date cooking range. The organizers of the club are as follows: Harry L. Corbett, Elliott R. Corbett, David T. Honeyman, Walter B. Honeyman, Rodney L. Glisan, Dr. Herbert S. Nichols, Horace Mecklem, Brandt Wickersham, Jordan V. Zan, and myself." The Portland Ski Club was organized six years ago, and has since made a trip to Government Camp in January or February of each year. The journey is made by vehicle until snow is gained on the foothills, at Rhododendron; the remaining ten miles are covered on skis. The presidents of the club have been: 1907, James A. Ambrose; 1908, George S. Luders; 1909, Howard H. Haskell; 1910, E. D. Jorgensen; 1911, G. R. Knight; 1912, John C. Cahalin. The Mountaineers, a club organized in Seattle in 1907, made a noteworthy ascent of Mount Adams in 1911. =Climate.=--The weather conditions in the lower Columbia River region are a standing invitation to outdoor life during a long and delightful summer. Western Oregon and Washington know no extremes of heat or cold at any time of the year. The statistics here given are from tables of the U. S. Weather Bureau, averaged for the period of government record: Mean annual rainfall: Portland, 45.1 inches; The Dalles, 19 inches. Portland averages 164 days with .01 of an inch precipitation during the year, and The Dalles 74 days; but the long and comparatively dry summer is indicated by the fact that only 27 of these days at Portland and 15 at The Dalles fell in the summer months, June to September inclusive. Mean annual temperature varies little between the east and west sides of the Cascades, Portland having a 57-year average of 52.8° as compared with 52.5° at The Dalles. But the range of temperature is greater in the interior. Thus the mean monthly temperature for January, the coldest month, is 38.7° at Portland and 32.6° at The Dalles, while for July, the hottest month, it is 67.3° at Portland and 72.6° at The Dalles.