met on some rocks near the top of the Dome, that from the Cote 

 arriving the earlier. Their united forces advanced to the foot of 

 the arete of the Bosses, which joins the summit of Mont Blanc 

 to the Dome du Gouter. But this crest seemed to them so 

 narrow and so steep that they believed it impossible to follow it. 

 Their decision is a typical instance of the reluctance of the 

 Chamoniards of that date to face the unknown. The ridge of the 

 Bosses, given calm weather and ordinary conditions, affords a 

 comfortable footpath. Mountaineers to-day walk up and run 

 down it with their hands in their pockets. We may, perhaps, 

 assume, though the excuse is not offered, that signs of a change 

 in the weather were already visible and affected the determination 

 to retreat. 



It is difficult, no doubt, for the athletic climber of the twentieth 

 century to enter into the attitude of the early mountaineers 

 towards Mont Blanc. The youth who on a fine day walks up the 

 mountain by a trodden track is apt to wonder how the climb can 

 ever have been thought perilous. He may even dare to describe 

 it as ' a dull grind.' This point of view was not shared by the best 

 Chamonix guides I have known in the last generation. Men of 

 the widest experience, such as Frangois Devouassoud, have con- 

 fessed in such a phrase as ' One is always content to be back 

 safely from Mont Blanc ' their respect for the monarch of the Alps. 

 It is, of course, true that no climbing is called for on the ordinary 

 route ; a lame man, M. Jansen, was once dragged on a sledge to 

 the top ! But the great mountain has its moods, and it can be 

 terrible, as the list of its victims proves. I shall not forget a 

 morning of storm on the Aiguille du Gouter, when, wrapped in 

 Scotch plaids, W. F. Donkin and I rushed down the cliffs, through 

 mists which, urged by a south-west gale, raced past us in a wild pro- 

 cession. In a similar gale an Italian climber and two guides were 

 blown off the narrow crest of the Aiguille de Bionnassay. Sudden 

 fog and bad weather on Mont Blanc must always be a grave peril ; 

 the mountain is so large. In addition to these dangers, the first 

 adventurers, it must be remembered, had no sleeping quarters 

 above the snow level, they took a route up the final slope which was 

 at all times badly exposed to avalanches, and they habitually 

 neglected the proper use of the rope. At one spot on the ordi- 

 nary route in crossing the Petit Plateau there is still a 



