The weekly Butte record., 1861-05-25
An Experience Among the Glaciers.

weeks in Switzerland, and in that time had
" done everything considered necessary bv
our countrymen. We had acquired some ex-
per;ence in glacier work, having ascended the
Alitsch Horn, whose summit had been reached
for the first time by an Englishman, a member
of the Alpine Club, only two months before.
We made the ascent successfully, and were
proud of having been the second exploring
party to stand on its lofty peak, nearly four
teen hundred feet high. On that occasion we
passed two days on the snow and glacier.
I remember well the first glimpse had into
one of those terrible crevasses which intersect
glaciers. Getting guide to hold my hand, l
leaned over its yawning brink and gazed care
fully into the fathomless abyss. The two per-
pendicuar walls of ice appeared to join toge-
ther about three hundred feet down an ap-
pearance resulting from the convexity of the
crevasse. Usually, l believe, the great split
ends only where the glacier touches the ground
beneath.
No one who falls into one of these ever
comes ont alive" says one of our guides
" Yes, says another, g a man once escaped
and still lives at the Grindelwad he was a
chamois hunter, and when coming home alone
over the glacier, his foot slipped, and he was
precipitated into a crevasse. His fall was
broken by projecting ledges and blocks Of ice
which, however, gave way as he clung to them.
After falling three hundred feet he reached the
bottom of the glacier with leg and arm bro
ken. He found hollow space between the
ground and the ice, through which stream Of
water ran. Instinctively he followed its course,
despite the great pain he suffered, and after
crawling along for three hours, be found him
self freed from the glacier.
Ordinary creyasses are from three to eight
feet wide at the top, but the sides approach
each other rapidly, so that man would be
wedged in between the two walls of lee long
before he could reach The bottom And then,
unless there should be ropes at hand long
enough, what an awful death. An unfortunate
Russian gentleman perished thus in a crevasse
only last year, half frozen, half squeezed to
death, the heat of his body ever melting the
ice he ever sinking deeper and deeper into
this dreadful grave.
My companion and I ascended the Brevant
and, as few climbing travellers leave Chamouny
without visiting the Mer de Glace and the
Jardin, we arranged to make that excursion
To shorten our days work, we left Chamouuy
in the evening aud slept at Montanvert soli-
tary little mountain inn on the edge of the
Mer de Glaze. We z.RTe up betimes in the
morning. We provided ourselves with some
eatables and wines, and with our guide, whom
we had brought from Courmayour. 1t was a
glorious morning, and promised well for our
expedition. Our road, for about half an hour
was along an uneven path, skirting the glacier
which lay below on the left hand, very much
crevassed and covered with debris. The path
then came to an end, and the guide said we
must now take to the glacier We descended
on to it, and treaded our way among the nu-
merous crevasses.
The excursion to the Mer de Glace not be-
ing looked upon as a regular glacier expedition
is not made with the attendant precautions OF
axes or ropes. We were in high spirits, and
went along at great rate so quickly indeed,
that our guide, who had fallen behind, caution
ed us to allow him to take, and keep, the lead.
just then our progress was arrested by a
wide crevasse. Looking to the left, perceiv-
ed that it terminated some twenty feet from US,
in steep slope of ice, which thought could
easily climb. AS the crevasse was about sixty
yards long, determined to try this slope ra-
ther than go round by the other end Using
my Alpenstock instead of an ak, therefore, |
began making foothoes in the ice with it
He looked at the ice slope and the wide crev-
asse, and said, very seriously, at is dangerous,
let US go round :" By this time | had, with
the aid of my Alpen-stock climbed about half
way up the slope. had already come to the
conclusion that it was much too steep to scale
without an ak, and had determined to retrace
my steps, So when the guide had spoken, |
carefully stretched back my right leg, feeling
for the last hole | had made 10 the ice Ny
foot went past the place, and [ felt that I was
slipping There was not the least projection
that l could grasp. The slope became perpen-
dicular, and | went head foremost into the
yawning crevasse below.
heard loud cry of despair from my fellow
traveller and the guide. My own sensations
cannot be described or even distinctly separated
from the whirl and shock l felt that I was
being bumped from Size to side between the
two walls of ice that | was falling great
depth that l was being hurried to utter de-
struction-to a horrible death. Suddenly ]
felt that l was caught BY something; that
hung suspended. l was just able TO take
breath. and call out for \ rope a rope!"
By the most extraordinary chance my fall
had, been arrested by little ledge of ice
which spanned the crevasse like bridge On
this frail structure, not more than two inches
wide at the top, and Jas well as l could Judge
about two feet deep, had fallen, so that my