The alpenstock was jerked violently out of his hand, and went glissading down the snow for a distance of a hundred yards at least.
"An Impromptu Ascent of Mont Blanc"
W. H. Le Mesurier
There is a superstition amongst the crystal-hunters that to tell where the crystals are found brings bad luck, and he would never tell me in so many words; but one day, after my importunity, I saw him leveling his alpenstock on the ground in a very curious way, sighting along it and correcting the direction, and when he had finished he said, as he walked past me, "Look where it points," and went away.
"The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I"
William James Stillman
Now, he had to make it to a twenty-minute deadline, without rope or alpenstock, a Moon-man adapted to a fraction of Earth gravity.
"A Matter of Proportion"
Anne Walker