Page:Aurora Australis.djvu/40

AURORA AUSTRALIS. When we awoke at 4 a. m. the following morning, we found that the blizzard was over, for which we were devoutly thankful. The primus was soon got going under the shelter of a rock, and we all turned out at 4-30 a. m.. After a good breakfast we repacked our loads, and started again about 5 - 30 a. m..

The angle of ascent was now steeper than ever, being 34°, that is a rise of I in 1½. As the hard snow slopes were mostly much too steep to climb, without resorting to the tedious expedient of cutting steps with an ice-axe, we kept as much as possible to the rocky arêtes. Occasionally, however, the arête would terminate upwards in a large snow slope, and in such cases we cut steps across the névé to any arête which seemed to persist for some length in an upward direction. Often this second arête would end upwards in a névé field, and then we had to cut steps as before.

Burdened as we were with our forty pound loads, and more or less stiff after thirty continuous hours in our sleeping-bags, and beginning besides to find respiration more difficult as the altitude increased, we felt exhausted, while we were still 800 feet below the rim of the main crater. Accordingly we halted at noon, thawed some snow with the primus, and were soon revelling in cups of delicious tea, hot and strong, which