The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-09-17 00:00:00

FEARFUL ALPINE ACCIDENT-
ELEVEN LIVES LOST.

Th Journal de Cozen., gives the account of aterrnle
acci leut upun :Mont Blatm

" Three travellers, an Irishman awl two An Wows, with
three ,cul..ies and five porters, loft Cbamounix or lion.lay
morning, to arrive thatday. and leap at the Grands.l.litlets.
Toe weather wan flue, but tha next morning them was so
violent a Storm that the inhabitants of Chant max riatrirally
supposed the the travellers would hove gives up the War of
an IMICIMIL of 'font Clone, and would lot hive quitted
the Granda-Mulets. There was, therefore, no dip-Inlet re-
specting them in the valley News cams, it is true. In
the evening, that from the Croix to Flez&e and from
ItiCvent they hau been sees rteiting for Mont
brine in spite of the tempest and that they
had arrived upon the Dromedary's How, an hottrb
march distant from the smart That they had been icon
suddenly to collect together, and to hold tau one to another,
and then to disappear in the scow wreaths raided by the
wind. In spite of this, however, people m nsisted In be-
lieving that they trust have it altered thomrelves against the
wind to some nook or crevice of the ice, and therefore there
was no crosst ~cession to fesr for the result However, when
the soot day the proprietor of the Pavillon de In Pierie.
pelage arrived, expreeslog his aatonlahruent at finding that
no OUP had re-deacended, people began to hove serious appre-
hensions regarding the fate of the travellers. The d..y was
too fa advanced ton render it posaible to snake any immediate
search, hut on the f. Hewing 11101.1,,g tkirttotwo young wen
of the valley won't cff lu search of them

—'7Friiiirtunately, the shocking weather which pvivolled
prevent,' them from passiog the Nvihou of Pierre 'Virtue,
situated at two hours' Journey ft,on Chamouoix. Tiwy were
obliged to retrace their !dela without being able to do any-
. _ _

"On the following day a new attempt was made by 12
crurageous youi g men, but again the rain and the wind
would not permit them to scale the mountain.
"At the hour of writing there remains TIU hope that these
unfortunate people have escaph hi death. It Is probable that
at the moment when they were sea !mite last time grouped
together en the top of the Buses du Drentallaire, they were
making a supreme effort to withstand the tempeat, no terri-
ble on those heights, that their effort was of no avail, and
that they were preelpllaled together lipon the Glacier do
allege, ...latch spreads out on the side of the Ants Blanche.
" We have he, u farnielb.d with tile name, ol two of the
guider, Jean Balmatek and Joseph Breton, who were well
k,OWII oa account of their butnerous ascensions One of
the porter, was a young 0 •rde Mobile, who, on accost of
being the suppOrt of his family, was excused from service snit
Seat home a few elerh pros heady. Hie father was ki:led seine
yean ego on the Grande Sillies, by the felling of a clothe de,
tubed teem a rock
"This terrible drama, The only witness to which was the
waste of tuner, has produced at Chem:num an emotion
which we shall not attempt to describe. The whole of the
valley is literally In mourning."