Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/242

Rh So soon as Hastings had come up, and was settled squarely in the big step, I began cutting once more, but was soon brought to a halt by volleys of abuse; amongst which I seemed to detect a term used in the tennis court to define the score of forty all. The rest of the party having reached the upper slope, a way was soon cut to the rocks. Above, the cliff rose in a steep and threatening precipice, but it was seamed with a series of deep cracks, and we decided that one or other of these would be almost certain to afford a practicable route.

We selected for our first effort the deepest and blackest of the group. At the outset this gully proved more formidable than we had expected. The walls were rather too wide for the wedging method of ascent, and the scarcity of hold made it extremely difficult to effect any advance. By the aid of Hastings's head and ice-axe, it was possible to reach a considerable height in the innermost recesses of the gully, but further direct progress was barred by overhanging rock, and it was essential to traverse outwards on the left wall of the cliff to a broad step which seemed a suitable basis for farther operations. The traverse was undoubtedly practicable if this step afforded any crack or grip sufficient to enable a man, not merely to haul himself up to it, but to scramble on to it; a performance by no means always easy when the shelf is merely a narrow ledge with