Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/240

Rh shoulders, and, from this aerial point of vantage, I whacked the piton into the crack with an ice-axe. Before the rope could be slipped through the ring it was, of course, necessary to untie, a process always of much difficulty, and especially so when only one hand can be spared for the work. These various operations must have lasted well nigh five minutes, and it was with a sigh of relief that Hastings lifted me gingerly down to the rock and tenderly rubbed those portions of his body that had been abraded by my boot nails.

We then found that the rope would not run in the piton, so, once more, the living pyramid had to be constructed and a noose of rope tied through the piton ring, in which our rope could run freely. After these arduous labours the traverse of the slab was effected with unexpected ease; though, possibly, in the absence of the protection afforded by the rope above, the hold attainable would have seemed perilously small. Beaching the edge of the gully, it was happily possible to just touch the opposite wall with an ice-axe, and this support enabled me to kick an inferior step in some hard-frozen snow still lying against the rock. From this footing I managed to cut a step in the ice itself, and the traverse into the couloir was accomplished.

The ascent of the ice gully was not wholly enjoyable; there was no possibility of escape should stones or other missiles see fit to fall, and the