THE WESTERN ARETE 



peak. Unlike the southern side this was almost entirely 

 covered by snow and ice, and on it rested two small corric 

 glaciers (the Heim and Forel) supported upon ledges, the 

 larger of them ending in a cliff of ice from two to three 

 hundred feet in height. Huge masses frequently break off 

 from the ends of both of these, and fall with a crash on to 

 the margin of the Tyndal Glacier below, where they accumu- 

 late as fan-shaped piles of ice. 



To the north rose the steep pyramidal peak of Point 

 Piggott, separated by a depression from the western arete of 

 the mountain. This ridge ends to the south as a cliff, which 

 forms the northern boundary of the basin of the Tyndal Glacier. 

 Couloirs of snow occur in places along it, and one at least of 

 these might be practicable for a full-sized party, but a yawning 

 bergschrund separated the glacier from the neve fields at the 

 foot of the cliff. 



I hoped, however, that the northern face of this ridge would 

 be easier, and resolved to work round the western and northern 

 sides of Point Piggott, and thus gain the depression between 

 it and the central peak. 



A rough scramble over a slope, covered with a mixture of 

 snow and talus, took me on to the western edge of Point 

 Piggott ; but a mist covered the ridges to the north, and thus 

 I was disappointed of my view in this direction. It also drove 

 me farther than I had intended up Point Piggott, before begin- 

 ning to work round its northern face. During this traverse 

 I continued to ascend, until I must have been level with the 

 " breche " or depression which I hoped to reach, but the mist 

 prevented my determining my exact position. I was at length 

 stopped, at a height of probably about 17,200 feet, little below 

 that gained on the southern arete, by some cliffs which it was 

 hopeless to attempt to scale ; I tried to turn them by a traverse 

 at a slightly lower level, which the loose snow made rather 

 uncomfortable, though I had always plenty of hitching-points 

 for the rope. Progress was very slow, and I could not see 

 that the daily snowstorm was blowing up earlier than usual. 

 My retreat was too late ; the storm broke while I was still 

 on the northern face of the peak, and rendered some rocks 

 I had skipped over in the ascent quite impassable. I had 

 to descend a gully in order to try to reach some less steeply 



