No path was visible but I thought that I would be all right if I walked with due caution The wind hammered down from the heights knocking me over as I slid and slithered on the slippery ice Suddenly the innocentlooking snow gave way beneath me I dropped startled into a hole some four feet deep The snow had formed a roof over the gap between two rocks melting away to leave nothing but a thin crust through which I had plunged I hauled myself out shaken and unnerved wondering what I would have done if the hole had been thirty feet deep I sat back against the top of a pine tree that protruded from the snow to take stock of the situation In an hour I had covered about half a mile It was perfectly clear that I would have to abandon my plan