“Nowhere did we come to any place where we felt that our powers were overtaxed; still, the work was difficult, though not supremely so.
“A few days later I met Mr Conway at Breuil, and I asked him what he meant in this case by the term, ‘following the arête.’ His interpretation, which is rather an elastic one, is this: ‘Climb over the pinnacles if it is convenient to do so. If not convenient, shirk them by passing below their western bases.’ This latter method was most probably impracticable on the occasion of our ascent, which fully accounts for the great difference between Mr Conway’s ‘times’ and our own, as we certainly climbed at least as quickly as an average party on the Dent Blanche during the whole of our ascent.
“The time sped merrily and quickly by, and the difficulties decreased as we hastened onward. Just as we left the last rocks a light filmy cloud, sailing up from the north, hovered for an instant over the top of the mountain, and then settled upon it; otherwise, though it had then become exceedingly cold, the sky was clear and the day perfect, and we could not help comparing our good fortune with that of those early climbers who fought their way upwards, step by step, against most ferocious gales.
“After some tiring step-cutting on the gentler slopes above the rocks, which, like the west face, were sheathed in ice, we reached at last the south end of the little flat ridge which forms the summit of the Dent Blanche, where a small flagstaff is usually to be seen. Here there was an enormous snow cornice which overhung the eastern side. The little cloud merely clung to the cornice on the ridge, and evidently had no malice in it at all. None of us put down the time at which we reached the top. One of us thinks that it was just after four o’clock, but the memory of the two others is clear that it was between three and four; at any rate, of this we are all agreed, that it was not so late as 4.12, the hour when the author of Scrambles in the Alps reached the summit in bad weather. My watch, being out of order, was left at Zermatt.
“We left directly, and in less than a minute were out of the little cloud, which was uncommonly cold, and again we revelled in bright sunshine. We were under no apprehension of danger, nor had we any reason whatever to be anxious, as our way was clear enough: there was no doubt about that. We were in capital training, and we had, most certainly, a sufficiency of daylight still left to allow us to get well beyond every difficulty upon the mountain. Moreover, Solly, with his usual instinctive thoughtfulness, carried a lantern in his pocket, and we had left another lower down. Thus we had a most reasonable expectation of reaching the Stockje that evening, and Zermatt early the next morning.
