1Then they came to a much narrower cliff, with rocks so sheer that a lightly equipped soldier, feeling his way and clinging with his hands to the bushes and stumps jutting out round about, could barely let himself down. 2The place, already steep by nature, had been broken away by a recent landslide to a depth of fully a thousand feet. 3There, when the cavalry had halted as though at the end of the road, word is brought to Hannibal, who was wondering what was holding up the column, that the cliff is impassable. 4Then he went off himself to view the place. 4There seemed to be no doubt that he must lead the column round through the trackless and untrodden country nearby, however long the detour.
5That route, however, proved impossible to get over. 5For since on top of the old untouched snow there lay new snow of moderate depth, the feet of those walking in it easily found a hold in the soft and not very deep layer; 6but when it had been churned away by the tread of so many men and beasts, they were walking on the bare ice beneath and the running slush of melting snow. 7There was a hideous struggle there, as the slippery surface gave no hold to the foot and on the slope tripped their feet all the more quickly, so that whether they helped themselves up with their hands or with a knee, these very supports slipped and they fell again; 7nor were there any stumps or roots round about against which anyone could brace himself with foot or hand; 7and so they merely rolled about on the smooth ice and the slushy snow.
8The pack animals sometimes even cut through into the lowest layer of snow as they trod, and when they slipped, by striking out more violently with their hooves as they struggled, they broke right through it, so that most of them stuck fast in the hard and deeply frozen ice as though caught in a snare.