There is a glacier, a rock traverse, a couloir up a rock-cliff, and at the top of that a steep ice-slope.

And that is not all.

You want your last step on to the summit to reveal a new world to you.

On the Charmoz, it is true, there is a cleft at the very top up which you scramble between two straight walls and you pop your head out above the mountain.

Yes, but you see little that is new; for before you enter the cleft you see both sides of the mountain.