Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/172

Rh difficult an ascent the bolder and more significant will usually be the immediate surroundings of the traveller. In other words, the aesthetic value of an ascent generally varies with its difficulty. This, necessarily, leads us to the conclusion that the most difficult way up the most difficult peaks is always the right thing to attempt, whilst the easy slopes of ugly screes may with propriety be left to the scientists, with M. Janssen at their head. To those who, like myself, take a non-utilitarian view of the mountains, the great ridge of the Grépon may be safely recommended, for nowhere can the climber find bolder towers, wilder clefts, or more terrific precipices; nowhere, a fairer vision of lake and mountain, mist- filled valleys, and riven ice.

A variety of attempts were made to repeat the ascent of the Grépon, but the mountain defied all attacks till the 2nd of September, 1885, when M. Dunod, after a month of persistent effort, succeeded in forcing the ascent by the southern ridge. Curiously enough, though he twice reached the Charmoz-Grépon Col, he failed on each occasion, not merely to hit off my crack, within six yards of which he must have passed four times, but also to strike the variation of this route which leads up some slabs on the Mer de Glace face. This latter was invented by some unknown party, whose existence is only deduced from numerous wooden wedges driven