Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/197

160 who, we thought, might be watching us from the Mer de Glace; we congratulated the first lady who had ever stood on this grim tower; and then we listened to the voice of the charmer who whispered of hot tea and cakes, of jam and rolls, of biscuits and fruit, waiting for the faithful in the Pic Balfour gap. There we feasted sumptuously, and having bundled the cooking-stove and other luggage into the knapsacks, we hurried down the easy ledges to C. P., and were finally chased off the mountain by wind, rain, and hail.

It has frequently been noticed that all mountains appear. doomed to pass through the three stages: An inaccessible peak—The most difficult ascent in the Alps—An easy day for a lady.

I must confess that the Grépon has not yet reached this final stage, and the heading of the last few pages must be regarded as prophetic rather than as a statement of actual fact. Indeed, owing to the great accumulation of ice and snow on the mountain, the ascent last described will always rank as amongst the hardest I have made. None the less, its chief defence—the sense of fear with which, till lately, it inspired the guides—has gone, and a few of them have actually screwed their courage to the "sticking point" and reached the summit. Last season another lady, well known in climbing circles, traversed the mountain in the opposite direction, and it bids fair before very long to become a popular climb.