Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/364

Rh this step once surmounted, we could force our way down and regain the glacier below the ice fall.

After some consultation, we determined to face the descent. We knew, of course, that it would save time to retrace our steps, cross the glacier, and descend by the right bank, where it was evident the native path must be. Both Zurfluh and I, however, felt the need of a little real climbing. The knapsack, coats, and axes were accordingly discarded, and we made ready for a piece of work of a sort rarely met with away from the Chamonix Aiguilles. The rocks had been worn smooth by glacier action, but had since weathered along the line of a perpendicular fault. This process, however, had proceeded a little too far, and the rocks at the top of the fault were extraordinarily loose, whilst lower down they had fallen away bodily. After an endeavour to force the descent by this line, we decided it would be too perilous. On the other hand, the glaciated rock on our right was hopelessly impracticable. Dividing these two impassable lines, however, was a precipitous corner. A few of the rents and fissures by which frost and sunshine had shattered the rock in the fault had extended thus far, and by their aid it seemed barely possible to descend. I managed to get down about sixty feet, but immediately below this point the rock was undercut, and it was, therefore, necessary to traverse into the gully or fault. This traverse was of a very