354 THE DUKE OF ABRUZZI 



arrived on the 14th at Askole, last inhabited village of the valley nearly 10,000 

 feet above the sea. 



Hereabouts was the easiest part of the journey. The valley was free from 

 snow, covered with flowering trees, filled with pretty fields. Nevertheless, it 

 had some difficult paths, traversed by rivers and mountain torrents, over which 

 the expedition had often to pass on primitive rope bridges, some extremely long. 

 It frequently took two or three hours to get the entire expedition over one of 

 the bridges, as the construction is so frail as to allow at most two or three men 

 to cross at a time. 



THE BASE ESTABLISHED. 



The first experience on a bridge of this sort. Marquis Negrotto told the 

 Italian reporter, is not pleasant. To begin with, it oscillates frightfully. The 

 water beneath, he added, seems to be motionless, while the traveler, on the 

 other hand, seems to be flying through the air, driven along by the wind in an 

 impetuous and fantastic career. 



Of these wild scenes the intrepid Sella took many photographs, climbing 

 frequently in order to take them to all sorts of perilous vantage points. 



At Askole about 100 additional porters joined the expedition for the pur- 

 pose of carrying the provisions for the other porters and of driving to the ex- 

 pedition's base at the head of the Baltoro glacier a small herd of cattle and 

 sheep in order that fresh meat and milk might be available. 



On May 18 the base was established at Rdokass, on a grassy spur extend- 

 ing over the glacier at a height of 13,000 feet. From that time on it served as 

 a supply station for the duke in his advance over the glacier to the lofty peaks 

 which he had resolved to scale. 



K 2 IN ITS MAJESTY. 



On the 2 1st he set out from Rdokass, leaving behind the majority of the na- 

 tives to act as guards over the greater part of the provisions and baggage, 

 which were in charge of an Englishman. Abruzzi and his companions marched 

 for four days through the imposing solitude of the glacier, crossing spur after 

 spur, until, on the 25th, after having averaged nearly 10 miles a day, thcjr 

 found themselves at the foot of the immense peak known as K 2, where they 

 encamped and rested all night. 



Here the work began in earnest. 



The 26th of May dawned, livid with dense fog, which floated over the grim 



