La Grave Thursday 7th Dearest Mother. To you this time: I'm sure you must be longing to hear more of arêtes and couloirs and pentes de neige! Well, on Tuesday it was very fine, so I thought it wd be well to catch the Aiguilles d'Arve which had been mocking at me from afar for so long. I accordingly arranged with Mathon to go up to the Refuge Républicain that afternoon. I spent the morning reading papers and talking to my nice old French couple. At 11 my two dear Germans arrived from Le Monêtier and announced that they also were going up to the Refuge that afternoon. So we agreed to go together. It was very hot and we had a short thunderstorm after lunch, but at 3.30 we started, Marius having already gone on with my things and a donkey carrying wood for our fire. Our road lay up the desolate and frankly hideous valley behind Les Hyères. Moll, Hugo and I drove a little way up it on one memorable occasion! Two very hot hours brought us to the col and in a few minutes more we turned a corner (I had begun to think that the Aiguilles d'Arve didn't really exist) and came upon one of the most singular views I have ever seen. We found ourselves in a great basin which must once have been a lake. The mountains rose so steeply from it that scarcely any grass cd grow on them, bare rocks lying in twisted layers. A glacier stream ran through the basin over a very wide stony bed, the end was closed by heaps of stones and the tail of a glacier, and over all towered the two rocky peaks of the Aiguilles d'Arve. In the growing dusk it wd be impossible to imagine anything more inhuman or forbidding. I felt inclined to turn tail and run back, till I was encouraged by seeing the dear donkey returning with his man from the refuge. It was so comforting to see some sign of human life. He came in very handy, dear donkey, for we met just as I reached the stream which was wide and deep, so I mounted him and made him carry me over it, arriving at the Refuge dryfooted at a little before 6.30. Marius was already busy cooking the soup outside. The Refuge was tiny, we had all to get up from our lunch before the door cd be opened, but we supped cheerfully and had a good night till 3 AM. But the nights are cold, I was distinctly conscious of the fact even though I slept. We were ready to be off by 4, but we waited half an hour longer for the light and left as soon as we cd just see our way. It was a perfectly clear starry morning, fresh and delicious. We went up over stones and névés till we reached the Col Lombard right at the foot of the Aiguille Méridionale (which is the difficult one) at 6. Another half hour over easy rocks and we stopped to rope and eat a little. We were off again at 7 leaving all our baggage, and our ice axes on the rocks. Then began a most charming climb up a couloir with a little ice at the bottom of it, but so narrow that we kept to the rocks with a foot on either side. The Germans went first, they had put on lovely climbing boots with soles made of string. At the top of the couloir we turned a corner and came out face to face with the Aiguille Centrale, which has a most impossible aspect, but is quite easily ascended from the other side. We now found ourselves upon some dalles of rock, like the tiles of a roof, lying at a very steep angle; the edge of them disappeared into space. All this rock was delightful to walk on, for the whole Aiguille is made of a sort of conglomerate out of which little stones have been washed away leaving a rough surface with natural holes for one's hands and feet. We were at the foot of the famous mauvais pas, which consists of an overhanging rock just too high to get up, so that the first man has to mount on the shoulders of the second and help him up subsequently with the rope. I crept along a ledge and photographed the two Germans while they did this - I do hope my two photographs will come out, they will be most interesting. Then it was our turn. I planted myself firmly in a ledge and was unroped; Mathon mounted on the shoulders of Marius and went up with all the rope, 30 ft or so. When he was well placed he called out to me, I was tied onto the rope, got onto Marius's shoulders in my turn and climbed up to Mathon. It was most enjoyable. When I got up, I was again unroped, and the end of the rope was let down to Marius. This place is said to be more difficult than anything on the Meije, but for my part I found the Brèche Zsigmondy far harder. Probably, as I have learnt a good deal since then, I should now think it easier than I did 10 days ago, but still, on the Aiguille your guide is straight overhead and the rope taught between you and him, while on the Brèche he is round a corner and can't help you much, though I suppose he cd catch you if you fell, if the rope held. Another 10 minutes of dalles led us onto the arete where we were only a few minutes from the summit. One has the best view of the Meije and the Ecrins I have yet seen. We got there at 8.15 and left at 8.45. The descent was easier and pleasanter than the ascent. Mathon began by holding the rope so tight that it cut me, but I succeeded in persuading him that I intended to go down by the usual path and he presently left me alone. We got down to the Col at 9.15 and there my dear Germans and I parted, I going down to the Refuge, which I reached at 11.30 and they over another col and so away to St Michel. They have been angels I must say! Paulcke gave me a large pair of woollen gloves, without fingers, as a parting gift so that I shall not be frostbitten again. On the whole I liked the Aiguille better than anything I have done. It was agreeably short and most amusing climbing - all rock which is just what I like, for I'm getting quite good at it. Whereas if you put me on a piece of ice, I take the very first opportunity of falling flat! I lunched at the Refuge and slept most peacefully for an hour. We left at 2 and were back here before 3, the walk down being most pleasant for one had the great Meije with all its snows to look at all the time. There's not a white man in the hotel (my French couple had left, I found a most charming message from them on a card saying how they had enjoyed making my acquaintance), but one alpinist from Lyons [Lyon], who knows the country very well and has promised to send me a lot of his photographs. I have been having a long talk with him, the outcome of which is that I have decided on a most promising final expedition. I shall go up to the Refuge de l'Alpe to sleep, cross the Col de la Pyramide behind it (this Col leads onto the Glacier Blanc and is, it seems, most beautiful) make a flank march to the left above the Glacier Blanc and so by the Col Tuckett to the Pic des Agneaux, which is the most eastern of the Pelvoux group. I shall descend by a good glacier to Le Monêtier and sleep there. I expect it will be a long day, 14 or 15 hours, but I shall take a day or two's rest first and my Lyons friend says that the views from the Col de la Pyramide and the Pic des Agneaux are quite unsurpassed in all Oisans. Meantime, alas! my films haven't come and I used my last yesterday and the Col has never been photographed so that it would have been real fun to have had them. Isn't it a pity! I mean to leave here on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on when I get this last expedition through. I'm rather keen about it. Oh dear, this has been fun!
Thank you so much for the World. The Bodley interview is impayable! Can't you see him showing all his photographs of kings and princes! Isn't he a beast! And Evelyn! I wish a bolt from Heaven wd fall upon them. Please thank Elsa so much for her letter - I'm not writing to her because I haven't written to you for so long and I can't - even I can't! - tell all my adventures twice over. I think of you with the Creightons arriving today. I hope you are having an amusing party. The more I think about the loss of dear Tully, the less I am reconciled to it. I cd have better spared an aunt or cousin! Talking of aunts, Homburg doesn't seem to have been a great success. Hugo's return journey sounds most amusing, on the other hand. My love to him.

I follow public affairs in the intervals with great interest. The Transvaal still looks very black, but the horizon seems to be clearing over Rennes. They can't condemn him again! Much love to everyone. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude.

I'm much obliged to Papa for his advice. I now owe Mathon and Marius together ú24.10 which, considering that we have been hard at it for a fortnight with only one day's rest, is not so much. The fortnight for which I engaged them is now over, so I pay them nothing when I am doing nothing. But they're going to accompany me on my last expedition. That won't be very expensive however. The Meije, guide and porter together, cost ú8. Of course, besides that I have up to now paid for their board and lodging, but it's not been very dear. Refuges are cheap. I thought of you last night when I lay down on my straw in the Refuge Républicain. It was just 7.45 by my time - you were dressing for dinner!