k of a chap 1 opening

	Once they had climbed through the woods of pine and holm oak which covered the lower slopes of the mountain, the nevados would be visible from the town all day. Above the woods the mountain was almost sheer for thousands of feet, and they moved slowly on the narrow shelves that served for paths. They had donkeys with them, bearing rolls of reeds, and simple food for their sustenance in the snows. At midday, under a pale clear sky, they climbed through a ragged strip of cloud that hung across the peak, well below the shining summits. From below it appeared a soft and narrow scarf of cloud; to the nevados it was a region of blurred footholds, and sudden chill - they could feel how high they were as soon as the sun was veiled - which took an hour to climb through. Still another hour scrambling on the nearly bare rocks of the crest, where the scrubby vegetation of rosemary and thorns had given place to lichens and tiny plants shrinking in clefts and crevices, and their destination was in view. They had reached the snows. The fall was late in the year - it was April already, and in the valleys the almond blossom was over and the figs were slowly unrolling pale green fingers of foliage on the tips of their skeletal branches. But the fall was heavy and had blanketed a wide sweep of the summit. The sharp crenellations and broken cliffs of the mountaintop were softened and smoothed; the deepest shadow on the sunlit snows was paler than the grey rocks underneath.