Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/233

Rh It appears that the rope unluckily failed to bring him to the steps, and jammed him under the lip a short distance to their right. Collie, however, proved equal to the emergency; finding that his head and shoulders refused to go over the lip, he stuck his feet against the ice and, forcing himself outwards against the rope, walked up the over-hanging ice in a more or less horizontal position. This manœuvre brought him, feet uppermost, on to the slope, and it is needless to say caused both astonishment and mirth to the spectators. However, he soon resumed a more normal attitude and tracked up the slope to the little crevasse. As time began to press, and we were unroped, I started at once and began cutting the requisite steps to the ridge. A few hundred feet further, the slope eased slightly, and this laborious process was no longer necessary.

A huge cornice surmounted the ridge, overhanging the tremendous cliffs above the little Glacier d'Envers Blaitière. Well to its right I pursued my solitary way to the foot of the final tower. This is almost completely detached from the main ridge, being, in fact, the highest point of the secondary ridge lying at right angles to it. The south-eastern end of this secondary ridge culminates in the Dent du Requin. In consequence, the route we were following from the north-east brought us to the same, or almost the same, point as that which