The party made a depot of the sledge and of some of the provisions and cooking utensils at the second camp, and then, starting with tent-poles among their equipment, they resumed their climb. Soon, however, they realised the impossibility of climbing the mountain with these articles, which had to be taken back to the depot.
Each man carried a weight of 40 lb., and on the third evening the party camped about 8750 ft. above sea-level. Between 9 and 10 P.M. of the 7th a strong wind sprang up, and when the men woke the following morning a fierce blizzard was blowing from the south-east.
In the whirling snow and roaring wind, the two sections of the party, although only some ten yards apart, could neither see nor hear each other, and the blizzard increased in fury as the day wore on.
In the afternoon, however, Brocklehurst emerged from the three-man sleeping-bag, and instantly a fierce gust whirled away one of his wolfskin mits, and he, dashing after it, was swept down the ravine by the force of the wind.
Adams, who had left the bag with Brocklehurst, saw the latter vanish, and in trying to return to the bag to fetch Marshall, he also was blown down by the wind. Meanwhile Marshall, the only occupant of the bag, had great difficulty in keeping himself from being blown, sleeping-bag and all, down the ravine.
At last Adams, on his hands and knees, succeeded in reaching the bag, and at the same time Brocklehurst, also creeping along as best he could, appeared. It was a close call, for so biting was the cold that he was all but completely gone.
During the day and night of the 8th the travellers had nothing to drink, as it would have been impossible to have kept the lamp alight to thaw out the snow. Happily, by 4 A.M. the blizzard was over, and soon afterwards the climbers were again on their way. The angle of ascent was now steeper than ever, being thirty-four degrees—that is, a rise of 1 in 1½ and the travellers kept as much as possible to the bare rocks. During this day Brocklehurst, who was wearing ski boots, began to feel the cold attacking his feet, but did not think seriously enough of it to change into finnesko.
At noon a fair camping-ground was found some 800 ft. below the rim of the old crater, and after a hasty meal the ascent was again tackled. Within a little distance from the top of the rim of the main crater, Mackay chose to work his way alone with his ice-axe up a long and very steep névé slope, instead of following the safer route by the rocks.
One thousand feet below the Active Cone