Having passed what I considered the worst obstacle, our spiritsrose. We__1__towards the left of the cliff, where the going was better, 2 rathersteeper. Here we found little snow, __3__ most of it seemed to have been __4__ off themountain. There was no __5__ of the mountain in the distance because the cloudswere forming all around us.

　　About 1 o’clock a storm __6__ suddenly. We had time to have __7__ its approach but wewere concentrating on cutting steps, and __8__ we had time to do anything, we wereblinded by snow. We could not move up or down and had to wait __9__ , gettingcolder and colder. __10__ my hood(兜帽), my nose and cheeks were frostbitten and I dared not take a handout of my glove to warm them.

　　After two hours of this, I realized we would have to do __11__ to avoidbeing frozen to death where we stood. From time to time through the mist I had __12__ the outline of a dark buttress(扶壁)just above us, todescend in the wind was __13__ question; our only hope was to scramble up to thisbuttress, and dig out a platform at the foot of it on which we could __14__ ourtent.

　　We climbed to this place and started to __15__ the ice. At first mycompanion seemed to regard the __16__ as hopeless but gradually the wind __17__ and hecheered up. __18__ we had made a platform big enough to put up the tent, and we didthis as __19__ we could. We __20__ into our sleeping bags and fell asleep, felling thatwe were lucky to be still alive.