Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/153

128 progress upwards became impossible, and though we reached points within a few feet of broken and fairly easy rook, we were forced on each attempt to return. Whilst still doubtful whether a yet more determined attack might not conquer our enemy, Venetz wisely climbed back into the couloir and up to the col to see if any more convenient line could be discovered. He soon called on us to follow, and, leaving Burgener to pick up the rope and knapsack, I scrambled round and found Venetz perched some ten feet up a huge slab. This slab rests like a buttress against the great square rock, which shuts in the col on the Grépon side with a perpendicular wall. Its foot, accessible by a broud and convenient ledge, is about twenty feet below the col, whilst its top leads to the foot of a short gully, at the top of which is a curious hole in the ridge dubbed by Burgener the "Kanones Loch." From this, once attained, we believed the summit was accessible.

So soon as Burgener had brought round the rope and knapsack, Venetz tied up and set to work. At one or two places progress was very difficult, the crack being in part too wide to afford any hold, and forcing the climber on to the face of the slab. I subsequently found that at the worst point my longer reach enabled me to get hold of a small protuberance with one finger, but how Venetz, whose reach is certainly a foot less