Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/230

224 haven. On the other side the view was most dramatic. The cliff immediately below actually overhangs. The huge pinnacle to which reference has frequently been made, as shutting in this col on its northern side, towers upwards in smooth precipitous slabs that recall the relentless cruelty of the great precipice on the Little Dru; and on the other side great ice cliffs dominate as wild and vast a wall of rock as the climber often sees. A wall which, sweeping round through well nigh 180 degrees, forms one of the sternest cirques the Alps can boast, and which, with its overhanging séracs, vast cornices, and black, ice-filled couloirs, recalls some of the more savage recesses of the Caucasus

We stormed the short wall still intervening, broke through a thin crest of snow, and shouted our welcome to the Blaitière, the Charmoz, and the Grépon. We had reached the upper slopes of the little glacier on which Carr, Slingsby, and myself had spent such weary hours the preceding year. Now, however, we were above the series of ice walls, and could delight our eyes by studying the graceful curves with which the snows swept over towards the cliff. Immediately opposite were the gaunt crags we had tried to scale, and we recognised, with a feeling akin to pain, that from our farthest point the ridge could have been reached, in two or three hours at most, and the summit won. Our present position was, however, far more favourable. The