A WOMAN’S 
steepness took what seemed an intermi- 
nable half hour to descend. Even step- 
cutting and crampons did not seem to 
make it safe from slipping. From it we 
had to descend the very steep Glacier du 
Dome, which was a mass of crevasses at 
every turn. To descend it thus in the 
afternoon of a hot day meant plunging 
to the knees for two hours in soft snow 
and going in to the hips below every 
crevasse over which [| jumped. 
The tiny hut at the foot was already 
filled by an ascending caravane, so five 
hours of interminable walking down the 
Glacier de Miage and over rough ground 
on a valley path must be added to our 
days work. At Io p. m., 19% hours 
after our start, we came into Courmay- 
eur, Italy, 11,800 feet below the summit, 
but not especially tired and with no 
worse complaint than toes a little sore 
from the long descent with wet feet. I 
was the first woman who had reached 
the top that season and ours the first 
caravane that had “traversed” Mt. Blanc 
that year. 
THE GIANT'S TOOTH—DENT DU GEANT— 
13,170 FEET, 744 HOURS 
By 4.30 the next morning I was awake 
again, rested and ready to start later in 
the day for the formidable Dent du 
Géant, or Giant’s ‘Tooth. From Cour- 
mayeur to the Col du Géant. the snow- 
pass from which the ascent was to be 
made, was a five-hour climb, first up a 
steep path, then over easy snow slopes 
and snowy rocks. We intended to spend 
two nights at the Col; that is, after as- 
cending the Dent du Géant, to return to 
the Italian Alpine Club’s Refuge below 
the Col, in order to climb the Requin en 
route to Chamonix the next day. The 
ascent of the Géant was thus to be a 
short one. Only an hour of level snow 
was to be crossed, so this time there was 
no need for an early start. 
After the snow stretch that lay be- 
Eween tae Col and the base of the 
“tooth” there came three-quarters of an 
hour of steep, snowy rocks and then 
nearly two hours of the most exhausting 
work that I have ever done. The tooth, 
CLIMBS 
INST Ee HIGH ALPS 671 
or rock tower, rises almost perpendicu- 
larly 500 feet in the air (see pictures, 
pages 666, 667, and 668). A few fixed 
cables there are, but they are poor sub- 
stitutes for a firm grip on rock. They 
hang loosely and were sometimes above 
my reach. 
Harder than the Matterhorn was this 
Aiguille, while it lasted. To find a hand- 
hold or foothold, to step or kneel as high 
as one could, to reach as far and pull as 
hard as one could, in order to lift one’s 
self up—this was what it meant, and 
withal hurried, when already gasping, or 
cut in two by the rope of a well-meaning 
but overzealous guide above. Once on 
top, he explained that the snowstorm in 
which we were now climbing might turn 
into an electrical storm, and two guides 
had once been struck by lightning on this 
Aiguille. But once down, the strain and 
the anxiety over, | was not tired, for 
there had been only five hours of great 
effort or care, and altogether we had 
been out only 7% hours. 
The Dent du Requin is not 
the Dent du Géant, but its ascent is 
longer, because it is further from any 
base, and its “needle” is an even sharper 
point, with no ropes to pull on. After 
we had waited 24 hours at the Col for 
the snow to cease, clearly the Requin 
could not be done, so down to Chamonix 
we went—down the full length of the 
as high as 
beautiful Mer de Glace, for its upper 
part, above the Géant, is beautiful, very 
different from its dirty tongue at the 
Montanvert. 
AIGUILLE DES GRANDS CHARMOZ, 11,293 
FEET, 1344 HOURS 
Twenty-four hours of sunshine started 
us up again the next day for the hard 
Aiguille “des Grands Charmoz (see pic- 
ture, page 670); but it was with clouds 
and uncertain weather that we set out 
the day following, and conditions proved 
to be very bad, indeed. The route to 
the base was the same as for the Petits 
Charmoz before. Instead of the short 
snow couloir to the latter. we had now. 
however, to ascend the worst glacier I 
have ever been on. The Glacier des 
