Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/220

214 face of the Plan was veiled in cloud. There seemed, however, a chance of rifts and rents in the barrier, so, making my way to a great boulder close under the lower slopes of the Midi, I laid down at my ease and watched the eddies and gusts of wind ever wreathing and swaying the clinging folds of vapour. My patience was rewarded; from time to time sections of the cliffs were disclosed, and it became evident that a way to the summit could certainly be found by keeping well to the right of the peak, and striking the ridge that falls away from it towards the col. This was not, however, the route we wished to attempt. Our first "objectif" was to be the snow col on the left of the peak, and perhaps a thousand feet below it. This col is shut in on the Chamonix side by the precipitous Aiguille in which the great northern buttress of the Plan culminates. It is an obtrusively visible notch, and may be seen from the stone man on the Little Charmoz ridge just above the Montenvers, or even from the Chapeau, though of course when seen from these points of view it is on the right of the summit. Once arrived on this col we should reach the precipitous little Glacier du Plan, on which during the preceding year we had exerted much fruitless labour. At the point, however, at which we were now aiming, we should be above the great ice walls and threatening séracs, and fairly certain of being able to force our way to the summit. The way to this col lay up a long gully,