The Days of a Man Ci88i 



pected to be suspended over infinity! John as usual 

 went up ahead as far as his tether permitted, then 

 called to me to follow. The rope was white with 

 frost and I thought that I could manage better with 

 gloves. This was a mistake, for when I had to 

 trust my full weight I felt myself slipping down- 

 ward, at first slowly, then more swiftly. It was 

 not a pleasant sensation, though I hoped to stop 

 when I reached the . knot at the end of the rope ; 

 otherwise we might all form the nucleus of a rock 

 avalanche moving toward Zermatt. The knot held, 

 however, and gloves off, I tried again, this time with 

 better luck, after which the others followed suc- 

 cessfully. 



After a few moments' rest in the hut we next 

 passed up and along the sharp arete or angular edge 

 of the mountain, thereby avoiding the risk of falling 

 stones. This at one place became exceedingly 

 narrow, and on the north side, as we inched along, 

 we looked down a precipice of four thousand feet 

 The to the Tiefenmatten Glacier. From a cliff not far 

 greatest a bove us at that point, Whymper's companions fell 

 the whole distance to their death. I asked John 

 about it, but he would not talk. "I was not there," 

 he said. 



Clouds now gathered suddenly, enveloping us in 

 a gusty snowstorm and drenching the valley with 

 rain. We lost sight of the earth altogether; every- 

 thing below was a fathomless abyss. As we turned 

 along the more level shoulder toward the east face, 

 Aymonod called my attention to a heap of stones; 

 "Voila le chalet de Monsieur Vimpere," his version 

 of "Whymper." The cliffs which now confronted 

 us were distressingly difficult even with the aid of 



L 262 H 



