AC dBooks

It was a long reach, but we chose the rocky ridges and moraines, trying
to avoid the crevassed glaciers, and all went well until the twentieth,
when just as we were reaching the steeper gradients a strong wind sprang
up, blowing straight down the course before us.
All day long we toiled against it, but the weather grew worse, with
gusts of sleet and snow, until the wind reached the force of a hurricane
and the temperature fell to 28 degrees below zero.
There was nothing to do but to wait for the blizzard to blow itself out,
so we plugged down our tents in the shelter of the rocky side of a
ravine that had an immense snow-field behind it.
The first night was bad enough, for the canvas of one tent flew into
ribbons, and the poor chaps in it had to lie uncovered in their
half-frozen sleeping-bags until morning.
All through the twenty-first, twenty-second, and twenty-third the storm
continued, sweeping with terrific force down the ravine, and whirling
the snow in dense masses from the snow-field overhead.


Pages:
721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745