Glissading down from West Peak

One of the real joys of mountain climbing is to learn to glissade, essentially skiing

on one's boots, using the ice axe to act as a third position of support and as a

rudder. Here the climbers are making a rapid descent from the west peak of Mt.

Olympus. One feature that digital image conversion allows is the inset closeup. I

once tried to do this by slide copying onto slide film but gave up after several rolls

were wasted. (Restored from an original Kodachrome slide exposed in 1961)

In 1955, I first was taught to slide down this exact same location by doing a sitting

glissade (as a beginner I was not allowed to use the ice axe on such a steep slope

as it was feared I might hurt myself) Well, I managed to accidently pitch forward

and summersaulted down the slope, causing a small avalanche and (I found later)

losing two rolls of exposed film. Those two rolls must still be buried in that perpetual

snow.

Your inset is a great way both to convey a sense of scale and to show more detail. Everyone seems to be in their shirt sleeves. Was it a warm, spring day? Or just hot work?

It was early August, and the afternoon was warm, unless you spilled into the snow.