Chapter 9, Climbing the Ice Cone, Chapter 10, The Snow Avalanche Ride Summary and Analysis

Those who live in Yosemite Valley tend to like Muir, although they think he is eccentric and risk-seeking due to his excursions. In this chapter, his risk-seeking behavior is on display when climbing an ice cone. By this time, it is cold in the valley and frosty morning sounds can wake him up. The frozen spray of water that erupts in the morning produces a cone of ice at the foot of Yosemite Fall about four hundred feet high. Muir describes how it forms. It tends to grow higher and wide in the cold weather and appears to be a pure-white and smooth hill.

Muir wants to learn about the cone and tries to climb it. He faces only a little difficulty, although...