As the climbers rest on a ledge, they may notice an earlier occupant: it has lived there for a long time, despite the harsh conditions, the destructive UVs, the large daily temperature changes, accumulations of snow and ice. This plant nevertheless survived; and, delicate and slender, it is very pretty!
Its range is from 600 to 3,000 m (2,000-10,000 ft) in a number of mountain ranges, mostly European (it is native to Europe), from the Alps and Pyrenees to Lapland. It is found typically on the grasslands of acidophilic slabs — i.e. on granite, it dislikes chemically basic limestone. Its common name in English is rock campion and it is found on crystalline rock ridges. In France, it flowers from June to September. The white flowers are small, 6-10 mm (1/4-3/8 in) in diameter, with five petals.
I borrow from Flora Gallica — published between 1900 and 1906 — by Abbé
Hippolyte Coste, this technical description:
perennial plant, glabrous and glaucous, with a slender stump; stems
5-25 cm (2-10 in) long, slender, erect or climbing, simple or rambling;
lower leaves spatulate-obtuse, the others lanceolate-acute; white or pink flowers or
pinkish, erect, long-stalked, in a dichotomous panicle; calyx short, obconical, hardly
umbilicated, glabrous, with 10 veins, with oval-obtuse teeth; petals notched,
crowned with lanceolate-acute scales, with not auriculate, nor ciliated tab; capsule
ovoid-oblong, 4-5 times longer than the glabrous carpophore.
Coming back to survival under extreme conditions, rock campion protects itself against dryness with a thin layer of wax on its leaves. It decreases evaporation and gives the leaves a bluish green colour.