Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/217

176 by these judicious methods, we constructed a cairn of the few stones that were available, and we then, feeling our labours were completed, gazed on the great peaks and rejoiced in the glorious mass of light reflected from the vast fields of snow which surrounded us on all sides.

Owing to the fact that we had distributed our ice-axes, knapsacks, spare rope, &c., on sundry and various rocks throughout the line of ascent, it was essential that we should return the same way, otherwise we should have been tempted to make a short cut to the point where the main and south ridges meet. The top of the great tower was, we could see, easily accessible, and, even if the gully between it and the mass of the mountain should prove impracticable, a "piton" and the rope would easily have solved that difficulty. Unluckily we could not abandon our various baggage, and we were, in consequence, bound to follow the route we had taken in ascending.

At 2.20 p.m. we left the peak and were soon on the top of the tower above the window. Hastings promptly produced a "piton," which we drove into a suitable crack to help the last man down. The window being regained, we took a farewell glance at the ridge and started down the gully. At the first bad pitch we carefully hitched the rope, and I was delighted to find the ease with which it could be descended. My delight, however, was somewhat modified when, after ten minutes spent in