CHAPTER IX

THE PIZ BERNINA SKI CIRCUIT IN ONE DAY 245

Old snow well padded with new--Christmas Eve in the Bernina hospice--The alarum rings--Misgivings before battle--_Crampons_ and sealskins--A causeway of snow--An outraged glacier--The Disgrazia--A chess-player and a ski-man--Unroped!--In the twilight--The Tschierva hut--Back to Pontresina--Hotel limpets--Waiting for imitators.