Mountaineering Routes : Page 302

tween becomes a gendarme—a policeman who is all too often signaling the climber to stop. A ridge often owes its lofty, exposed position to a rock structure sounder than that which once surrounded it. Sound rock is steepest, requires the best handholds—and has the fewest. The ridge route is usually devoid of falling rock and ice, but devoid as well of an even gradient toward a summit. The sharper the ridge, the more it is broken by notches and towers, and the more numerous are the detours that will have to be made onto its walls. Ridges are particularly exposed to wind, storm, and lightning. If an electrical storm is approaching it is advisable for a party to be off the skyline before rocks hum and hair stands on end, to give too ominous a display of the discharge of static electricity. (See Lightning and the Mountain, pages 175-180.) Ridges in high mountains will have cornices to leeward of prevailing winds; if the winds of the region are too whimsical, there may be cornices on both sides—double cornices, both collapsible. If the ridge is exposed, roped travel is of course in order, and consecutive belays may be necessary.