Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/187

Rh too much to the right in the couloir, and, to avoid descending, we had to make a traverse which involved climbing of a merit fully equal to anything required above.

On reaching the point where the Grépon route diverges from that to the southern pinnacle of the Charmoz, we found the couloir in a most unsatisfactory condition. Not merely were the rocks as rotten as usual, but they were decorated with great frills and tassels of brittle ice, the interstices being filled up with the loosest and most powdery snow. It was impossible to tell what was sound and what was loose, though we found it a good working hypothesis to regard everything as loose. After a time the process of raking out the snow and testing the stones became so intolerably chilling to our fingers, that Slingsby and I agreed we had better traverse directly to the lowest of the gaps dividing the Charmoz and Grépon. It was tolerably easy to get along a big slab of rock, but the ascent of a vertical crack, perhaps fifteen feet high, required prolonged and severe effort. I ought, however, to add that my companions appeared to scramble up without difficulty, Slingsby even bringing my axe, which I had left forlorn, wedged in a crack, in addition to his own.

The Mer de Glace face was in full sunshine, and was delightfully warm after the bitter cold of the shaded western rocks. We traversed by easy ledges,