“There was no truce, up there, in the pitched battle with the mountain. The higher they climbed the greater the difficulties they encountered. Luckily the warm breath of the föhn wind softened the snow and enabled them to get warm when halting for a moment on a stance between two difficult pitches. Then off they would start again on the same old round – clearing the cracks, fighting their way up, with now and then a spell of cutting hand- and footholds in hard ice.”
– Roger Frison-Roche, First On The Rope