Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/239

194, we kept to the left on a sort of shelf of the couloir; further to our left was a still lower groove filled with ice and evidently the main channel for falling stones. Happily the slabs forming our shelf were separated from the great wall of rock closing in the couloir on our right by a narrow and almost continuous crack, just wide enough to admit the fingers. Aided by this crack we progressed steadily, though an occasional "bad pitch" proved impracticable till the Hercules of the party had lifted the first man over the obstruction. The angle of the shelf increased steadily, and the frequency and length of the bad pitches increased in like ratio till it became an almost perpendicular wall. As this coincided with such a reduction in the width of the friendly crack that fingers could no longer be inserted into it, we were brought to a stand.

It was now evident that we must get into the lowest compartment of the couloir and cut our way up the ice, but the traverse of the shelf towards this compartment was a problem of grave difficulty. Once away from the friendly crack, there was no hold of any reliable sort. Hastings, with much wisdom, suggested driving a piton into the crack as high above us as possible, so that, by passing the rope through it, the leading man might be secured from danger and enabled to take liberties that otherwise could not be thought of. Hastings, despite his extremely poor footing, with great skill and strength hoisted me on to his