I dared not look down, but kept my eyes on the slope before me, searching for any patch of ground which promised stability.

Once I found a scrog of juniper with firm roots, and this gave me a great lift.

A little further, however, I lit on a bank of screes which slipped with me to the right, and I lost most of the ground the bush had gained me.

My whole being, I remember, was filled with a devouring passion to be quit of this gully and all that was in it.
Then, not suddenly as in romances, but after hard striving and hope long deferred, I found myself on a firm outcrop of weathered stone.

In three strides I was on the edge of the plateau.