Page:Mannering - With axe and rope in the New Zealand Alps.djvu/85

Rh trials of endurance to which the unfortunate who chances to be taken ill in these Alpine regions is subjected, and it was a great relief to all to see the afflicted one struggle bravely into camp.

But a new trouble arose. There was no photographer, and he ought to have turned up long ago. Johnson set out to look for him, and after an absence of an hour I was just putting up a swag of mackintoshes, provisions, &c., prepared to spend the night photographer-hunting on the glacier, when Johnson's figure appeared against the sky on the crest of the lateral moraine, shortly followed by that of the missing man, who had wandered down past the camp instead of turning off at the right place. Low and Annan had gone down the valley, and were to come up next day with more provisions.

The next day being Sunday, we decided to have a day's well-earned rest. Messrs. Brodrick and Sladden, of the Survey Department, came up with Annan and Low to dinner, bearing with them medical comforts for the use of our invalid.

As there were still some dry plates left unexposed. Cooper and I went out about 10 and climbed to a height of 1,000 feet above the camp, on the Ball Glacier spur, from whence we secured a panoramic view on four plates of the glacier and the mountains opposite.

From this point, seeing Aorangi looking so grand, we pushed on up the ridge, intending to secure an exposure from a high altitude. Upwards we climbed, and the further we went the more I was lured on towards the main southern ridge of the mountain. I