Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/181

148 furious gale. With much discomfort to himself and grave damage to the pockets of his coat, he conveyed these murderous weapons through various difficulties to the very foot of the final climb.

The preparations for a preliminary assault by fair and legitimate methods were in progress, when Pasteur joyfully shouted that we had already joined the C. P. route, and could ascend by a perfectly simple and fairly easy line. The crack, by which Venetz had climbed, is not the only one leading to the top. To the right, and rather on the Nantillon face, is a second cleft, precipitous at the bottom, where a friend can conveniently give you a shoulder but quite practicable above. M. Dunod, ascending from C. P., reached the base of this crack, and naturally utilised it for the ascent. We, in 1881, reached the base of the other crack, and Burgener dismissed the alternative line with a contemptuous "Es ist schwerer als dieses." He was, however, wrong. Pasteur gave me a shoulder, and in a few minutes we all crowded round the ice-axe and its fluttering flag.

The wind was howling across the ridge with such fury that we could only crouch under one of the stones, and we soon determined to go down to warmer quarters. We scrambled off the summit, and, sheltering under its lee, rejoiced in victory and lunch. Pasteur, who had been previously on this side of the mountain, now took the lead. He slipped a spare rope through a "piton" left by