Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/237

192 tempting pathway. Traversing a short distance, we came to a fault in the cliffs leading almost straight up. The ascent of this was easy and rapid, and it was followed by other ledges and gullies that rejoiced the hearts of men, who, on the other side of this great wall, had been compelled to earn each foot of progress by hewing steps in hardest ice. Gradually, however, the ledges and gullies so dwindled in size that we were glad to take refuge in the couloir and advance, relying on the axe. The snow had been melted and refrozen so often, that it required almost as much effort to cut steps as in ice itself, and we began to look about for some means of escaping this labour. On the other side of the couloir the rocks were obviously practicable, and we made a determined effort to reach them. Down the centre of the snow, however, falling stones, ice, and water had cut a deep groove, the trough of which was ice and the sides deeply undercut. After many efforts, I managed to get into it and cut steps across to the further side, but there the snow wall proved too much for me. It was as hard and intractable as ice on the surface, yet no sooner was the surface cut away than soft snow was reached, affording no reliable hold for the fingers. As moreover the groove was obviously and obtrusively the channel down which the mountain shot all its rubbish, it did not appear desirable that two of us should be in it at the