Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/147

Rh merely that the mountaineer, the man who can sympathise with every change of light and shadow and who worships the true spirit of the upper world, is distinguished from unregenerate imitators and hypocrites by these characteristics.

My main objection to guide-led parties, however, is to be found in the absolute certainty with which the day's proceedings are carried out. Not merely can the guide "lie in bed and picture every step of the way up," but he can also, whilst so reposing, tell you to the fraction of a minute the exact time you will get to each point in the ascent, and the very moment at which he will return you, safe and sound, to the smiling landlord of your hotel. Now I agree with Landor, that "certainties are uninteresting and sating." When I start in the morning I do not want to know exactly what is going to be done, and exactly how it is all to be carried out. I like to feel that our best efforts may be needed, and that even then we may be baffled and beaten. There is, similarly, infinite delight in recalling all the varying chances of a long and hardly fought victory; but the memory of a weary certainty behind two untiring guides, is wholly colourless, and soon fades into the indistinguishable past.

Few scrambles have yielded more pleasure to my companions and myself than the ascent of the Brenva Mont Blanc. Owing to a foolish