our left leading towards Mount Bonney was broad and free from snow, and without any delay we resumed our ascent along it. The slope was gentle, and for half an hour nothing in the world could be easier. We could not see very far ahead owing to a series of knobs, one of which always rose a short distance ahead. I knew it was not all going to be easy like this, so we hurried anxiously upward, hoping soon to come in sight of the little curved peak visible from the railway, and which we feared would prove a serious obstacle to our progress. Scrambling up some angular sharp-edged blocks of quartzite into which the arête had now contracted, the curved peak came into view, and the look of it was by no means reassuring. From where we stood, to its foot, the arête was very sharp, flanked on the southward by steep snow slopes leading down for about 2,000 feet to the glacier on our right, while a heavy cornice overhung the almost vertical precipice to the northward. From this arête the peak sprang upwards in nearly perpendicular crags, snow-seamed, for over 200 feet. Two possible routes were all that offered: one was, to scale the apparently vertical face in front; the other was to skirt round the peak on the steep snow slope to the right, and so turn its flank. The slope was so very steep and the snow so likely to slide, that we decided the latter route would be too risky, we therefore put on the rope and pulled ourselves XI.] DIFFICULTIES IN THE ASCENT. 155 together for a stiff climb. Having rested for a few minutes and deposited our spare food under a boulder, we started along the cornice with much caution, and then began to climb upwards. There was just enough loose powdery snow on the crags, to make it most difficult to find a firm grip for either hands, feet, or axe. The projecting shales, set vertically, were also so rotten that at every step we had to dislodge quantities of rock ere we could find any solid foothold. Every move needed the greatest possible caution, for we could not avoid being in a direct line one over the other. The ridge about half way up, divided into two parallel ridges, the right hand one composed of bare crags, completely overhanging the snow slopes below, while the other was more or less a continuous snow arête to the summit. After much scraping away of snow with my axe I succeeded in reaching these crags while H. continued his way up the snow arête. We kept the rope tight between us and ascended abreast, he holding on while I sought out fresh grips, and when he moved I made myself as secure as I could. The crags on my ridge soon became more trustworthy, and at ten minutes to one o'clock the top of this first peak was beneath my feet. A snow cornice overhung the arête H. was on, and as he sung out from below that he had no grip whatever in the loose snow, I gave him a good pull, and up he came making a fine gap in the cornice. We were up now, so much was certain, but the glance which passed from one to the other expressed the foremost thought in our minds, "What about the getting down!" The view from the curved peak was superb. A perfect ocean of peaks and glaciers all cleft by valleys, and the main peak of Mount Bonney still rising in a dome of snow to the eastward. The weather looked threatening. Most of the landscape was bathed in sunshine, but there were heavy clouds hanging about the peaks, and one drifting towards us looked so lowering that we feared a thunderstorm. Our first thought was to hurry up with the camera, but ere we could get it fixed the clouds broke in a furious shower of hail accompanied by strong wind, and the photograph taken under such circumstances was decidedly of a shaky appearance. The gap in the cornice through which H. had ascended was distinct enough, but the distant view was all doubled and confused. As quickly as it came the storm passed away, and descending an easy slope of snow for a few hundred yards we commenced the ascent of the final peak. It was now nothing more than a tiresome trudge up steep domes of snow. When one was reached which we hoped was the final one another loomed up ahead. At last the highest crest was in sight, with a huge |