Plate XII. 
EAST SIDE OF DESOLATION RIDGE, HIGHEST POINT 9500 FEET Dora Keen 
*Dotted line on photograph indicates the route chosen. 
could be safely climbed from that side, but also in every detail 
of the route chosen.. But alas! the fates were against us, for 
at 9,500 feet the next morning, just where the serious work 
was to begin, the illness of one of our number compelled us to 
turn back, and when two days later we finally started again 
without him, again at the same point a terrific wind made it 
unsafe to proceed, and the fatal cloud cap determined our 
retreat. We had neither time nor food for waiting, but so 
sure were we of our route that I am glad to submit a few notes 
and views for the benefit of other adventurous mountaineers: 
From the last wood and water, below Desolation ridge, 
something more than an hour’s climb, even by lantern, will 
bring one to the east, snow-covered side of this ridge, which 
should be followed to its highest point (another hour and a 
half) almost under the end of Willis Wall. Thence the head 
of the North Mowitz glacier gives a short and apparently safe 
crossing to a ridge of rocks that lead up some 2,000 ft. In 
ease these rocks can be climbed with an extra rope, by their 
outward side, the ascent to the summit would at no point be 
imperilled by ice breaking off from above, and all difficulties 
would be solved, for the rocks lead upward to easy snow slopes, 
on which the summit could probably be reached in another 
hour and a half. For the ascent of the rocks, prudence would 
dictate that four hours be allowed, but so far as could be 
