mountaineering in oriab

'' in the clear sunshine of morning carter began the long ascent, ... the slope was very precipitous and the whole thing rather dizzying. ... he found it best not to look around, and kept on climbing and climbing till the shrubs became very sparse and there was often nothing but the tough grass to cling to. ... finally there was nothing at all but the bare rock, and had it not been very rough and weathered, he could scarcely have ascended farther ...

'' once or twice carter dared to look around, and was almost stunned by the spread of landscape below ... as new country came into view below him he saw that it was bleaker and wilder than those seaward lands he had traversed ... at last in the fearsome iciness of upper space, he came round to the hidden side of ngranek ... poised in windy insequrity miles above earth, with only space and death on one side and only slippery walls of rock on the other ... if there were no way aloft the night would find him crouching there still, and the dawn would not find him at all. ''

h.p.lovecraft, the dreamquest of unknown kadath.