Once as she stood, she moved her foot and scratched the sole of her boot on the ice to level a roughness in the step, and at once she saw Chayne and the guide in front drive the picks of their axes hard into the slope at their side and stand tense as if expecting a jerk upon the rope.

Afterward they both looked round at her, and seeing she was safe turned back again to their work, the guide cutting the steps, Chayne polishing them behind him.
In a little while the guide turned his face to the slope and cut upward instead of across.

The slope was so steep that instead of cutting zigzags across its face, he chopped pigeon holes straight up.

They moved from one to the other as on a ladder, and their knees touched the ice as they stood upright in the steps.

For a couple of hours the axes never ceased, and then the leader made two or three extra steps at the side of the staircase.