CLIMBING ADVENTURES 187 



and hand-holes that might be there quite useless. On 

 the other hand, even had I been able to climb that 

 part of the mountain, it would not have been possible 

 to get farther than the west side of the ridge. The 

 only way for me to take was the one I had taken. 

 Therefore, for the first time, I realized that I could 

 not get up the west peak from any other part ,of 

 the different ridges. It was quite out of the question 

 to continue up the ice ridge ; and to take the more 

 gradual slope on the south was to take a very great 

 risk of sliding down with the snow. 



I looked at it as carefully as possible, and decided 

 that although I might slip the snow did not seem 

 more than 2 feet deep, and there was not much danger 

 of being smothered with an avalanche. 



I had come far and had taken the risks of escaped 

 exiles, wolves, bears, and the intense cold. Therefore 

 I did not intend to allow one more risk to deter me. 

 Walking carefully enough for a few yards, it looked 

 as though I had done the right thing" ; but a second 

 after making this decision the snow began to move, 

 and I with it. I steered myself with my ice-axe for 

 a yard or two, when I lost all thought of everything 

 except that I was being carried to destruction. I 

 turned downward and stopped, the snow closing over 

 me ; but I was able to knock the snow away from 

 my head, and I found I could breathe all right. I 

 had luckily retained the grip of my ice-axe, and this 

 stopped me from gliding farther towards a precipice. 

 Pulling on the ice-axe, I managed to get on to my 

 knees and free from snow ; then I found myself a 

 few yards away from a sheer drop of hundreds of 

 feet, and I was just on the edge of a steep slope 



