CHAPTER XI.
A LITTLE PASS—COL DES COURTES.
THE great cliffs closing in the head of the Brenva glacier had long attracted my hopes and aspirations, but a series of untoward events had, for three consecutive seasons, prevented any attempt being made to convert these hopes into accomplished facts. Last year, however, our whole party was resolved that, come what might, we would ascend the Mont Blanc from that glacier. In consequence, when we found the weather inclined to be unpropitious, we abandoned for the moment the attack on the Verte which has just been described, and determined to cross to Courmayeur, so that we could, if need were, devote our whole season to waiting for a favourable day.
We did not, however, wish to repeat the somewhat too well-known Col de Géant; or, for that matter, any of the passes leading from the Mer de Glace basin. It appeared to us that Mr. Whymper's route from the Glacier d'Argentière to Courmayeur was by no means the shortest or most direct that could be taken, and, with that altruism which
