Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/203

Rh veneer, so near falling that a very slight pull sufficed to detach very considerable quantities of débris. From this point of view our chances looked desperate. The crack we had seen overnight appeared precipitous, and it did not even look possible to get into it, the cliffs between us and it consisting of smooth and outward shelving slabs. After some consultation, in which Slingsby still held to the favourable opinion formed overnight, it was decided that I should be steadied down by the whole of our light rope (200 feet) and spy out the land on the further side of the snow patch.

The descent proved very much easier than I had anticipated, though the fact that no single hold could be trusted, even in those places where anything worthy of the name of "hold" was to be found, made me extremely glad of the moral support afforded by the rope. Immediately above the snow I found an easy and convenient traverse on the rock, leading across to the top of the buttress of which mention has previously been made.

From this point the opinion formed the preceding day was seen to be amply justified; easy rocks led into the crack, and it appeared, though difficult, to be well within the limits of the possible. Shouting to my companions to hurry up, or rather down—an injunction they certainly did not obey—I selected a suitable hollow between two rocks and proceeded to indulge in a doze. My dreams were,