At this post, then, one leaves the road and continues along
the ridge of the "neck" instead of crossing it and descending into the
valley beyond. There is an opening among the pine-trees at that spot, as
if there were a road between them. In fact, a path is sometimes made in
that direction which then serves to bring down timber from the higher
regions, but which is afterward overgrown again with grass. Proceeding
along this way, which gently ascends, one arrives at last at a bare,
treeless region. It is barren heath where grows nothing but heather,
mosses, and lichens. It grows ever steeper, the further one ascends; but
one always follows a gully resembling a rounded out ditch which is
convenient, as one cannot then miss one's way in this extensive,
treeless, monotonous region. After a while, rocks as large as churches
rise out of the grassy soil, between whose walls one climbs up still
farther. Then there are again bleak ridges, with hardly any vegetation,
which reach up into the thinner air of higher altitudes and lead
straight to the ice. At both sides of this path, steep ledges plunge
down, and by this natural causeway the snow-mountain is joined to the
"neck." In order to surmount the ice one skirts it for some distance
where it is surrounded by rock-walls, until one comes to the old
hard snow which bridges the crevasses and at most seasons of the year
bears the weight of the climber.
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