Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/189

Rh fact a hole, as the key-stone of the arch above has fallen out, leaving a narrow gap. The camera was brought round to this point and Miss Bristow promptly followed, scorning the proffered rope. On this aerial perch we then proceeded to set up the camera, and the lady of the party, surrounded on three sides by nothing and blocked in front with the camera, made ready to seize the moment when an unfortunate climber should be in his least elegant attitude and transfix him for ever.

Slingsby and I then returned to the col, and, putting on the rope, I went down the couloir and traversed to the rock known as the "take off." My first attempt failed, owing partly to the cold, which, the moment we got into the shade, was still excessive, and partly to the fact that the first reliable grip, some ten feet above the base, was glazed with ice and more or less masked with frozen snow. By the time this latter had been pulled off, my fingers were so chilled and so inclined to cramp that I was glad to get safely down again.

It being undesirable to repeat this performance, Slingsby left the hitch and scrambled on to the "take off." His shoulder enabled me to do without the ice-glazed holds, and to reach the perpendicular, but happily dry, part of the crack above. On reaching the shelving ledge midway up, I saw that a good deal of snow had drifted into the crack and frozen on to the two wedged stones which are