Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 1.djvu/163

106 which he lashed the alpine rope, holding me to the ledge after my jump and pulling me up the steep ascent. But he pulled so actively that I felt myself almost cut in two, and yelled to be released. After this crisis, we were on the under side of the summit. All the way along its crest there was a large cornice, and this was the only occasion when the guide spoke warningly. He told me not even to speak, because, in Switzerland, the vibration of a voice sometimes starts a small avalanche; but we soon found that the overhanging cornice was frozen firmly to the crest, instead of being a shifting stretch of snow. Soon we saw a gap and, cutting holes through the ice, reached the summit. No cairn had been erected there, so it was manifest that no foot had ever climbed the peak. We built up a "stone-man" and left the record of our climb in his care. Then I got up on his shoulder and gave a good leap several feet higher than the summit. Afterwards I learned that Macoun was computed from survey stations as four to twelve feet lower than the Club's standard of 10,000 feet above sea-level, but I feel that I attained the height.

We decided to go back another way. The vertical wall faces at the crack were the difficulty; for the ledge on the opposite side being higher, the jump would have to be strenuous. Besides, Swiss guides always like to make different trails. So we dropped down on the west side of the mountain, leaving at 12:45 p.m. Then we attempted three descents, but found them fearfully precipitous. The guide put me to the front, which was the right plan, for if I had slipped he was there to hold me back with the rope. But we found the descents too dangerous and rapid, and were compelled to climb up again and go partially over towards the south end. Here Feuz lighted his pipe once more, and studied the rock face that we had to encounter. Soon he detected some little ledges and a few crevices.