It was afternoon when they found themselves immediately under the ridge of rocks which was their destination, and a little search showed them a place where they could get off the ice and on to the rocks, and they were soon reclining on the grassy soil crowning the slope. There they rested while Hugh smoked a pipe, and then went on. To their left, that is on the side of this ridge of rocks opposite from the one by which they had approached, lay another great mass of ice, which, however, sloped the other way, and which Hugh said must run into the Flat Head or else into the head of Cut Bank River.
The crest over which they were passing was substantially level, and before them stood the tall rounded summit of the great mountain, the top of which they hoped to reach.
When they had come to the end of the ridge, it was a short climb down to the ice, and passing over this for a short distance, they came to more rocks and, surmounting these, found themselves at the edge of a dome-shaped snow bank, which seemed to stretch away by a gentle slope to the very top of the mountains. To the north was the slope they had to cross, and immediately below the edge of this a tremendous drop of perhaps a thousand feet to another ice field below.
“Here’s a bad place,” said Hugh; “if this snow is real hard there’s a chance that some one of us may slip. We must go across slowly. Come to the edge and then we will go forward, one at a time, always keeping the rope tight between us, the two men that are standing still anchoring themselves solidly by means of their sticks. If one of us should slip he’ll need all the help the other two can give him.”
Hugh put his gun down on the rocks and said, “I reckon I’ll leave that here till I come back. I may want both my hands crossing this snow.”
When they started they proceeded with great caution, following Hugh’s instructions. Occasionally the snow was so hard that it was impossible for them to dig their feet into it, and it was even difficult for them to punch their sticks down into it. Each one as he advanced went slowly and carefully, while the other two stood still to support him in case anything happened.
If the traverse was slow, it was steady and safe; and before very long the three found themselves clambering over the broken rock near the top of the mountain. At the moment, they had little thought for the wonderful view, since the minds of all were turned toward the summit which lay before them, and now only a few steps distant.
A moment later and the peak was gained, and the three threw themselves down in a sheltered place among the great rocks that formed the mountain crest, where the view was entrancing in its extent and grandeur.
In all directions, as far as they could see, mountains lay beyond mountains. Far away to the north were two which seemed higher than any of those nearer at hand. The whole circle of the horizon could be seen except that, to the north, the view was interrupted by the tall mountain close to them, which equaled in height the one on which they were sitting, and behind them to the south was another peak equally high. Away to the westward the eye traveled without interruption over lower rocky peaks and great stretches of forest, until it met other mountain ranges running north and south, so far away that only their dim outlines could be seen. To the north there was no such low country as to the west, for peaks and ridges thrust their sharp points up toward the sky, and one gained the impression of a world set on edge. Although they could not see them, they knew that between the ridges and beyond each peak lay some narrow valley or canyon, and that only by following such water courses could the country be traversed.
Immediately before and below them lay the great ice that they had just passed over, and behind or to the south, that other extensive ice field, which Hugh now said flowed into a tributary of the Flat Head River, and which, years before, had been named after a man who crossed the mountains through the Cut Bank Pass, the Pumpelly Glacier.