After crossing for three hours on the ice and snow, we reach the Grands-Mulets, rocks six hundred feet high, overlooking on one side the Bossons glacier, and on the other the sloping plains which extend to the base of the Goûter dome.
Hut At The Grands-Mulets.
A small hut, constructed by the guides near the summit of the first rock, gives a shelter to travellers, and enables them to await a favourable moment for setting out for the summit of Mont Blanc.
They dine there as well as they can, and sleep too; but the proverb, “He who sleeps dines,” does not apply to this elevation, for one cannot seriously do the one or the other.
“Well,” said I to Levesque, after a pretence of a meal, “did I exaggerate the splendour of the landscape, and do you regret having come thus far?”
“I regret it so little,” he replied, “that I am determined to go on to the summit. You may count on me.”
“Very good,” said I. “But you know the worst is yet to come.”
“Nonsense!” he exclaimed, “we will go to the end. Meanwhile, let us observe the sunset, which must be magnificent.”