Yes, it was sheer and absolutely unclimbable.
"Come to the glacier," said Leo.
So we went on to it, and scrambling a little way down its root, made an examination.

Here, so far as we could judge, the cliff was about four hundred feet deep.

But whether or no the tongue of ice reached to the foot of it we were unable to tell, since about two thirds of the way down it arched inwards, like the end of a bent bow, and the conformation of the overhanging rocks on either side was such that we could not see where it terminated.

We climbed back again and sat down, and despair took hold of us, bitter, black despair.
"What are we to do ?" I asked.

"In front of us death.