ich it is by way of an achievement
for the amateur climber to reach with guides and ropes and porters,
and nothing to take care of but his own skin. But here the Alpini and
Frontier Guides had to bring up the heavy pieces, hauling them over
the snow slopes and swinging them in midair across chasms and up
knife-edged precipices, by ropes passed over timbers wedged somehow
into the rocks. I was shown a photograph of a party of these pioneers
working in these snowy solitudes last winter. They might have been a
group of Scott's or Shackleton's men toiling in the Antarctic
wilderness.

"By means of a suspension railway made of wire rope with sliding
baskets stretched across chasms of great depth, oil, meat, bread and
wine are sent up, for the soldier must not only be fed, but must be
fed with particular food to keep the blood circulating in his body in
the cold air and chilling breezes of the snow-clad peaks. Kerosene
stoves in great numbers have been sent aloft to make the life of the
mountaineer soldiers more comfortable."

On July 9, 1916, there was bitter fighting between the Brenta and the
Adige. Strong Alpine forces repeatedly attacked the Austrian lines
southeast of Cima Dieci, but were repulsed with heavy losses. Shells
set fire to Pedescala and other places in the upper Astico Valley. An
attempt by the Austrians to make attacks on Monte Seluggio was
checked promptly.

In the Adige Valley another intense artillery duel was staged on July
10, 1916. On the Pasubio front the Italians captured positions north
of Monte Corno, but the Austrians succeeded in obtaining partial
repossession of them by a violent counterattack. On the Asiago Plateau
Alpine detachments successfully renewed the attack on the Austrian
positions in the Monte Chiesa region.

The next day, July 11, 1916, the Italians again made some progress in
the Adige Valley, north of Serravalle and in the region of Malga
Zugna, and reoccupied partially some of the positions lost on the
northern slopes of Monte Pasubio on the previous day. Heavy artillery
duels took place in the Asiago Basin and on the Sette Comuni Plateau.

The Austrians promptly responded on July 12, 1916, by attacking in the
Adige Valley, after artillery preparation on an immense scale, the new
Italian positions north of Malga Zugna. They were driven back in
disorder, with heavy loss, by the prompt and effective concentration
of the Italian gunfire.

Fighting in the Adige Valley and on