Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/258

Rh them suggested that.it was desirable to have something less than one hundred feet of rope between us. I therefore closed up to my leader, and we shortened the rope. As the work of cutting steps at this rate was very severe, I took Burgener's coat in addition to the knapsacks.

On our left was the huge trench which innumerable avalanches had graven in the slope, and more than once Burgener led us to the edge hoping to see some vulnerable point where he might force a passage. For the couloir is shaped like a huge Y of which we now occupied the tail. Our only hope of success lay in ascending its left or northern limb, but the avalanche trench led up to the inaccessible southern branch, and we, being on its right, were edged ever away from our true line of ascent. Its walls, however, were so eroded and undercut that we dared not attempt the traverse, and in consequence, on reaching the point where the couloir divides, we found ourselves to the right of and beneath the right-hand branch. A moment's glance was sufficient to dismiss any lingering hopes that it might prove practicable, and we turned with one consent to the left.

The couloir had by this time ceased to be a great walled-in gully, and was little more than a slight depression in the face of the mountain. Owing, perhaps, to this, it was no longer filled with deep snow, but was merely plastered to the depth of a few inches; the alternations of sun