Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/60

54 to watch Penliall's party, which had just come in sight on the Zmutt ridge. With a parting jodel to our friends we plunged down the slopes to the cabane. Great care, however, was required to avoid the broken glass and sardine boxes which had accumulated in large quantities. After a short halt we ran down to the Furggen glacier, and at 5.30 p.m. were unbuckling our gaiters on the moraine under the Hörnli. An hour and a half later we tramped down the high street of Zermatt, and were soon enjoying the rewards of the faithful.

—So far as I can learn, the ascent had till 1894 been only once repeated. On the 27th of August of that year, however, S. A, R. il Duca degli Abnizzi, with Dr. Norman Collie and myself, left a gîte, rather below my previous quarters. Under the lead of young Pollinger, who was the only professional member of the party, we kept to the right of my old route, and, reaching the Tienfenmatten glacier skirted it where it abuts against the cliffs of the Matterhorn. Then turning straight up, we climbed to the snow ridge, just where it merges into the rocky teeth.

We found the mountain almost completely free from snow and ice, and were able to climb without serious difficulty on the face to the left of the ridge—in the gully falling away to the Matterhorn