Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/98

92 the utmost surprise at our arrival. He excused his failure to wring the necks of the fowls on the ground that he fully expected that the mountain would have broken ours. He had also considered it a wise precaution, with the fatigues of a "search-party" before his eyes, to put in a good sleep as a preliminary!

The lady of the house was, it appeared, some distance away, so we despatched Venetz in quest, and soon saw the pair of them in full chase down the valley with the afore-mentioned bony fowls well in front. Later in the day we tramped down to Val Tournanche, and ended the day in feasting and comparative luxury.

—The subsequent history of the pass is soon told. The next year Dr. Güssfeldt, with Alex. Burgener as sole guide, crossed it in the opposite direction (Breuil to Zermatt). By the simple expedient of driving a stake into the snow above, and looping two hundred feet of rope round it, the difhculties near the Col were easily evaded. Owing to the exceptionally fine weather of 1881, the snow on the upper part of the couloir was in much better condition, and no very serious difficulty appears to have been encountered till the party were halfway down. The same cause which had rendered the upper half easier, greatly increased the difficulty of the lower. The fine weather had stripped the