Alpinist--
Roped man to man we'll scale the giddy height:
Step after step cut up those slopes of snow
That, gleaming spotless in the noonday light,
Curve out of sight above and far below.
What rumbled? (G.) From yon distant cliff was hurled
An avalanche which shakes this snowy world.

Guide--
The rocks I've gained through chimneys rough and steep
That crumble at a careless touch, and send
A rattling train of rubble bounding down
The icy slopes, which great crevasses rend.
Re-entrant over here the mountain dips
Into a gulf, which eddying mists eclipse.

Perched on this tottering and steep arete,
One hardly dares to even whisper low;
Lest, crashing from their crumbling pedestals,
The rotten crags through empty space will go
Two thousand feet down, where the hard neve
Is packed by ice that avalanched that way.

I'll anchor fast, and hold the rope, that you
By hand and foot and alpenstock may scale.
A traverse of the skyline rocks we'll make
And yon last gleaming slope of snow assail.
It leads up to a virgin mountain's head,
On which our feet will be the first to tread.