The traverse of the Meije even for an experienced mountaineer is a long day's climb.

They reached the summit of the Grand Pic in seven hours, descended into the Breche Zsigmondy, climbed up the precipice on the further side of that gap, and reached the Pic Central by two o'clock in the afternoon.

There they rested for an hour, and looked far down to the village of La Grave among the cornfields of the valley.

There was no reason for any hurry.
"We shall reach La Grave by eight," said Peter, but he was wrong, as they soon discovered.

A slope which should have been soft snow down which they could plunge was hard ice, in which a ladder of steps must be cut before the glacier could be reached.