two o'clock in the afternoon
Above their heads some knobs of rock stood out upon the thin crest of the buttress against the sky . In the darkness of a small couloir underneath the knobs Peter was already ascending . The traverse of the Meije even for an experienced mountaineer is a long day 's climb . They reached the summit of the Grand Pic in seven hours , descended into the Brèche Zsigmondy , climbed up the precipice on the further side of that gap , and reached the Pic Central by two o'clock in the afternoon . There they rested for an hour , and looked far down to the village of La Grave among the cornfields of the valley . There was no reason for any hurry . `` We shall reach La Grave by eight , '' said Peter , but he was wrong , as they soon discovered .