An ascent, which, to the unpractised cliff climber, might seem the work of an hour, will consume an entire day.
Having finished their meal, they resumed the upward march.

Reaching a small cluster of stunted and gnarled pines, they pressed through it and emerged on a great, bleak hillside, almost bare of vegetation.

Only here and there grew a tuft of stunted grass or a dwarfed shrub.

The temperate zone had given way to the regions of eternal winter.

Again and again they were compelled to pause for breath.
"Here it is," John cried, almost gleefully, as a snow-flake fell on his arm.
A little further up, they found snow drifted under a ledge of the rock, while little rivulets, running from the melting snow, joined mountain torrents and cataracts that thundered down below.