Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/290

Rh could be made, and had come to the conclusion, so dear to Uncle Eemus, that, "it mout, but then again it moutn't"

As the maps are all incorrect in this district, it will, perhaps, be as well to explain that the Aiguille de Triolet does not, as therein represented, rise at the point at which the Courtes ridge joins the watershed. At this particular point is a small nameless peak, between which and the Triolet is a col, probably lower than the Col Triolet. On one side of this col is a steep gully leading down to the Glacier de Triolet, and on the other are scarped ice slopes that fall away to the Glacier d'Argentiére. Whilst this col, if feasible, would offer many advantages, an alternative and easier way was evidently to be found by ascending the great snow and ice wall to the north-east of Les Courtes, and known in the Conway Guide series as the Col des Courtes. From the top of this wall it would, presumably, be possible to traverse the ridge to the curious upper basin of the Glacier des Courtes and reach the ordinary Col Triolet.

With these two strings to our bow, we felt tolerably certain of getting across the ridge, and on the 2nd of August, 1894, left the Montenvers about 9 a.m. and tracked down and across the glacier to the Chapeau. On the way from the ice to the little refreshment booth, Hastings and I refused to follow the path where it descends