He found it easier than it seemed, and came at last to another desolate alp, and then, after a rock climb of no particular difficulty, to a steep slope of trees.
So there's a famous gun that's still sitting on top of a mountain in the Alps because it took so much effort for people to drag it up there basically by hand.
They climbed down a slippery bank of pine-needles. There lay the pond, set in its little alp of green—only a pond, but large enough to contain the human body, and pure enough to reflect the sky.