Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/177

144 neighbourhood of the col, I looked around for my old route to the "Kanones Loch," but I could not recognise it, and the col itself did not seem familiar to me. The furious wind whistling and howling through the crags did not help to awaken my memory, and it was only when I had climbed round a crag on the Charmoz side of the col that I recovered my bearings and recognised the cleft up which we had to go.

Possibly the knowledge that I was going to try to lead up to it made it look worse than it really was, but for the moment I was startled at its steepness. With the exception of two steps where the rock sets back slightly (to the extent, perhaps, of two feet in all), the whole is absolutely perpendicular. In this estimate I exclude a preliminary section of seven or eight feet, which bulges out and overhangs in a most painful manner. On the other hand, it was distinctly more broken than I had expected, and the longer we looked the better we liked it, till with fair hopes of success I climbed down to the foot of the crack, scrambled on to Hastings's shoulders, and tackled the toughest bit of rock climbing I have ever attempted. For the first twenty feet or so the climber is to some extent protected by the rope, which can be hitched round a great splinter close to the col; beyond that point the rope is simply worn as an ornament, though doubtless it supplies one's companions with pleasing sensations whenever a slip seems