A secondary route, the Cloud Pass (S. "Cirith Faniun"), on the eastern side of the main ridge of the Hithaeglir, wound between Redhorn and Cloudyhead, allowing a traveler to avoid the Dimrill Dale. It then merged with a path along the northern fringe of Lorien in order to enter the northen part of the vale of Anduin. Melkor, the fallen Vala, had called upon many Maiar to aid him in the raising of the Hithaeglir. Unknown and unknowable to most mortals, one of them was entombed within the substance of Caradhras. In essence, the mountain was a sentient being; it was virtually always asleep and effectively blind and deaf by mannish standards, but was capable of affecting the substance of its own mass and the air around it using what mortals would have consider to be magical means. The spirit o