noon
We breakfasted as heartily as possible at the Pierre-Pointue ; this being a prudent precaution , as the appetite usually fails higher up among the ice . -LSB- Illustration : View Of Bossons Glacier , Near The Grands-Mulets . -RSB- M. N -- set out at eleven , with his guides , for the Grands-Mulets . We did not start until noon . The mule-road ceases at the Pierre-Pointue . We had then to go up a very narrow zigzag path , which follows the edge of the Bossons glacier , and along the base of the Aiguille-du-Midi . After an hour of difficult climbing in an intense heat , we reached a point called the Pierre-a-l'Echelle , eight thousand one hundred feet high .