I9I2] 
THE SLEDGE RETURNS 
353 
accompany me to the top, leaving Debenham, who had 
slight mountain sickness, to continue his survey, and 
Dickason, who was feeling the height more than the other 
two men, to help him. 
From here we were taking a single camping equipment 
— tent and poles, bags, inside cooker, primus, oil, and four 
days' provisions on full ration, and after this had been 
apportioned each man was permitted to take a reasonable 
amount of personal gear. All hands dragged the packs 
on the sledge some distance up the first snow slope, but the 
gradient soon became so steep that we were obliged to 
anchor the sledge with ice axes and assume our packs, while 
Debenham and Dickason tobogganed back to camp on the 
sledge. 
By climbing about a hundred feet at a time and taking 
long spells we were able to make steady if slow progress up 
the rock ridges, which were here nearly continuous as far 
as the rim of the second crater. The only difficult bits to 
negotiate were when we were obliged to cross the snow- 
slopes from ridge to ridge, and these were only dangerous 
because, owing to scarcity of ice axes, the four of us were 
able to have but three between us, and I was never sure 
where the fourth man would fetch up if he slipped. This 
necessitated step cutting and slowed us up considerably, 
and it was not until three hours and a half after we had 
left the sledge that we reached the rim and saw the second 
crater stretching out in front of us. 
Our first care was to select a good site for our camp, 
and after that was pitched to cook our evening meal and 
turn in. The clouds prevented our getting a view of the 
