Page:Mannering - With axe and rope in the New Zealand Alps.djvu/151

Rh This going down is a fearful strain on the nerves, and requires the greatest steadiness and caution. In hurrying down the easy rocks we missed a mark on a snow patch which Dixon had made to denote the right route, and this mistake at the outset caused us nearly half an hour's delay before we found the right spot from which to leave the crest of the rocks, Dixon led down the rocks and I followed, every now and then taking a turn round any prominent projection with the rope and easing him down, whilst he in turn secured a good hold and took in the slack as I came down.

Bad as it had been coming up the top couloir, it was infinitely worse going down, for what was trickling water on the upward journey was now solid ice, and many of the steps were filled with re-frozen chips of ice from the steps we had cut above, and these had to be cleaned out before we could get a secure foothold.

Cutting steps up is one thing, and cutting them down another, for on a steep slope one cannot turn round face downwards to get at one's work, which in the case of going up-hill lies convenient to the hand.

How we did get down without the fatal slip which I was momentarily expecting would be made by one or the other of us I never could quite understand.

The rocks below the topmost couloir were negotiated and the lower couloir reached. This was not so difficult to descend, and the effect of the frost was such as to prevent such a continual shower of ice blocks from above, thus minimising one prominent danger.

The lower parts of the couloir were reached, and here are situated the rocks which form the ledge upon