I, however, thought it would he much wiser to descend
the southern slope of our ridge and spend the night
among some rocks which we could see standing up out
of the snow slopes below us, finishing the ascent next
day (as we fondly hoped) by the Gurla Mandhata
glacier and the southern ridge of the peak.
We reached the gap about 3 p .m. and started to
descend the slope. We moved down only one at a time,
driving our axes deeply into the snow, for the slope
was not quite to our liking. At first all went well, and
we descended three or four hundred feet in this fashion.
I had let down Alexis the full length of his rope while
Henri steadied me from above. Just as I turned to
take in the slack of Henri’s rope I heard a curious hissing
sound above me : the newer layer of snow, lying on
an older and harder layer, had slipped from i t ; we had
started an avalanche. Henri, lying flat, and trying
hard to stop himself by driving the pick of his axe into
the snow, came down on the top of me and swept me
from my hold. As I shot down past Alexis I felt his
hand close on the back of my coat, and we went
down together. The sensation was a very curious one.
The mind seemed quite clear, but curious as to the end
rather than terrified. Time seemed annihilated, so
slowly did thoughts seem to pass through the mind
during the minute or so of our fall. The glacier below,
with the rocks just above it, seemed to be rushing up
towards us at an incredible pace, just as the engine of
an on-coming train grows bigger and bigger each instant
as it approaches. I distinctly remember throwing off
my snow-spectacles for fear that I should damage my
eyes when we reached the rocks below !
After what seemed an age I heard Alexis shouting
“ h droite, k droite!'” I knew he was somewhere to the
right of me and was trying to get us into safety. He
had seen a gully filled with snow down which he hoped we
might slide in safety past the first rocks to a large
snow-bed far below. However I could do nothing
but try and keep on the surface of the sliding snow.
Presently I got turned round with my head downwards,
and saw, a few yards off, a ledge of rocks with a drop
on the far side. I seemed to rise on a wave of snow and
dropped over a low cliff with Henri somehow or other
mixed up in my part of the rope. We were, of course,
in moving snow, and we fell on to moving snow, so our
pace was only slightly checked and we hardly felt the
shock of the fall. On we went, with the rope round
my neck this time, but it was easy to untwist it. Then
came a longer drop; surely this must be the last, I
thought, when suddenly, to my intense surprise the
rope tightened.round my chest, stopping me with a jerk
which squeezed all the breath out of my body. The
avalanche had spread out and stopped of its own
accord on a somewhat gentler slope of soft snow. Henri
was half buried above me and Alexis was away to
the right. I suppose that, being much lighter than
either of them, I had been able to keep more on the
surface of the avalanche. Both the guides lay quite
still. The rope was so painfully tight that I cut it. I
called to Alexis, who replied in an injured tone, “ Why
have you cut the rope ? ” I t was a silk one—for lightness—
and we had always been very careful with it.
Then I started up towards Henri, who had not moved.
However, he was merely more breathless than the rest
of us.
By this time the reaction had set in and my knees
were fairly knocking together. We crawled to the
nearest rocks to take stock of the damage. Alexis was