Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/73

52 of the snow ridge of the Matterhorn. At its base were one or two formidable crevasses, so my companion halted, urging as a reason that we should have such excellent opportunities of coming to grief later in the day, that it was quite needless to take advantage of those immediately at hand.

We found a convenient stone, and, taking off our loads, proceeded to breakfast. We chatted over old scrambles till the faint light in the east had intensified into a fiery glow, lighting up the mountains with a strange unearthly radiance, made doubly brilliant by contrast with the sombre night which still lingered in the deep valley below. Once more we began to ascend, when suddenly, with one consent, we leaned on our axes and gazed mutely at the "aged pinnacle" before us. The rising sun had just touched its summit, and the snowy Zmutt ridge was blazing with crimson light. We watched the red sun creeping ever down the slopes till, at length, it reached the broad glacier below, then Burgener struck his axe into the snow and we breasted the slope: the day had begun.

Keeping well to our right, we reached a sort of col, which leads from this small glacier on to the broad basin of the Tiefenmatten glacier. The latter was rather below us, but, by traversing along the snow slopes heaped up against the Matterhorn, we were able to avoid losing much height, and gradually the glacier rose to our level. Keeping close to the tremendous cliffs on our left, we