Year of publication 1960 - Fell and Rock Climbing Club

14 THE EVENING ALPSindeed awaiting us: the snow still firm and crisp, the dip andsoar, dip and soar of the hand's breadth edge sharp-shadowedin the slanting sunrays. On we went, the wind behind us,with a gaiety to match even the grace of the way before us.Those were really steep walls below: to the left the sunscorcheddecaying limestone verticalities that drop to thelevel of the Mutthorn Hut and the Kanderfirn; to the right,the shadowy up-ended sheets of snow, pristinely smooth anduncrumpled. Down they swept—too unbroken to give theeye its balancing hold—all the way to the scallop of theschrunds. But we had our feet to watch as we walked betweenthe gulfs. On the Weisse Frau, after an hour of this, werested. Mont Blanc had added itself to the view of all theValais: it felt like the recovery of half the high hours of alifetime.Here we made a mistake. Not wanting to risk spoilingsomething that had been so perfect, we decided not tocontinue along to the Bliimlisalphorn. The ridge—-more andmore and ever the same, but with deeper drops and whatlooked like longer rises—trends away and away, with a slightleftward turn, to the culminating point. It looked far, veryfar, and on this first 'real climb' of the season, we were afraidof becoming too tired to enjoy it, of slowing down and of thesnow softening. So, after a rest and a bite, we went down theNorth ridge of the Weisse Frau. It was already very icy andsteep, and narrow enough to make one feel once more what aqueer trade a guide pursues—taking care of all varieties ofhumans down such places. 'I am too old,' wrote CaptainFarrar, characteristically, 'to fall out of ice steps.' It wascomforting doctrine, at least, I thought, realizing ever moreclearly how decidedly not a place to fall off this was. I had anequal claim to immunity with the Captain. Fortunately,knees which, in recent seasons, had been prone to pretendthey couldn't, here did their stuff, bent and held with elasticityand alacrity. Thanks be! Needs must. I marvelled atthem as I went. None the less, it was pleasant to come togood snow and then the length and the dazzle and the heatand the softness of the lower hollows began to take effect.Tired? Yes! But still we would have done better to haveadded in the Bliimlisalphorn.Rest days in high frequented huts, grassless, shadelesswithout, turmoil and hubbub within, grow increasingly a