about three in the morning
`` He dismissed the guides two days before his death . The next day he spent in the hotel , getting his affairs straight . He left everything in perfect order , but not a line to a soul , not even to his sister . The following day he set out alone about three in the morning for the Grepon . He took the road up the Nantillons glacier to the Col , and then he must have climbed the Mummery crack by himself . After that he left the ordinary route and tried a new traverse across the Mer de Glace face . Somewhere near the top he fell , and next day a party going to the Dent du Requin found him on the rocks thousands of feet below .