the plane skirted the great eye-tooth of mont blanc , a few hundred yards to port , and bond looked down at the dirty grey elephant 's skin of the glaciers and saw himself again , a young man in his teens , with the leading end of the rope round his waist , bracing himself against the top of a rock-chimney on the aiguilles rouges as his two companions from the university of geneva inched up the smooth rock towards him .