Page:Du Faur - The Conquest of Mount Cook.djvu/249

Rh a very different matter, and it took every ounce of energy I possessed to keep up with Graham and not altogether disgrace my earlier reputation. Then quite suddenly I woke up, gained my second wind, and climbed happily for the last two hours. It was good rock-work; nothing sensational, but neither was it particularly easy. It was fairly cold, as the sun had not yet risen high enough to reach us. We gained the summit at 9.50, after six and a half hours' hard work, during which time we had only had half an hour's rest for a second breakfast. Our old enemy the westerly wind had meanwhile got to work, and was now driving up great banks of soft white clouds from the west, which obscured the head of the peaks at the Hooker Glacier. We had some wonderful cloud effects as Mount Sefton kept hovering in and out of the mists, which lent a truly imperial splendour to its frowning heights. Mount Cook managed to keep its head above the threatening mass, and we had a splendid but by no means encouraging view of the east face of the arête between the third and second peaks. This is a most appalling place, the slopes falling away sheer from the edge for thousands of feet. From the third peak to where we stood, the range descended in a series of seven snow-covered aiguilles like the jagged teeth of a saw. On its north side our peak sloped steeply down to the broken ice of the Mona Glacier, and on the east we had a magnificent view of the head of the Tasman Glacier and the Malte Brun Range. The day was still and sunshiny, and avalanches thundered into the valleys at frequent intervals. We spent two hours on the summit, and then descended by the north face to the head neve of the Mona Glacier. Below this we had some fine ice-work, threading our way through the séracs and crevasses. I was not at all sorry to leave the former, as a big thaw was in progress and some of the séracs seemed already tottering on the brink of ruin. We reached the hut at four o'clock, and