The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-06-07
An Alpine Adventure.

don NeI0s gives an interesting account |
of the adventures of four persons who |
endeavored to climb the Rax-Alp in q |
snow storm on Sunday, April 9, and |
were believed to be lost during -four |
DAYS. They were two brothers Fred |
erich, the bride of the younger brother,
and friend named Novak. The CORE
spondent says: !
" "After four hours tedious march in
the snow they reached a small mountain
inn, where they intended stopping until
the weather should clear up. But very
soon some tourists came in and told of
large party who were climbing up
ward, and were now on their way to the
'Gaisloch,' a deep fissure on the noun
tain side, in which more than one care
less Viennese has found an untimely
death, it being the fashion to climb this
mountain without a guide. The four
young people hoped to find their way by
following in the steps of those who had
gone before. After several hours diff
cult walking they reached the neighbor-
hood of the fissure, and found that it
would be utterly impossible to advance
without the help of guide. 1t was five
O'Clock in the afternoon by this time,
and the party hoped to get as far as the
Karl Ludwig house of shelter, where
they could have spent the night. Novak,
who was the nimblest, jumped across
should not attempt to follow him at
that place, the gap being too wide for
the girl to pass. He continued to speak,
telling them to find some track to ad-
vance upon, but dense fog settled up
on the mountain at this moment, and
after very few minutes they could
neither see nor hear each other. The
three imagined Novak must have slip
ped and fallen into the abyss, and they
attempted "a descent to look for him.
But after about an hours climbing over
snow and ice they saw that they had
reached the other side of the fissure by
long detour. The fog prevented them
from seeing more than q square of three
feet at time, and the snow uniformly
covered the ground at their feet. Creep
ing along with hands and feet, they
made slow progress upward, and late
on Sunday evening they reached shep-
herds hut, the door of which was
locked. The men burst it open, and all
three stretched themselves upon the
straw to rest from their fatiguing jour
ney. They had only one piece of bread
on a slice of ham, which they divided
among the three-the last nourishment
afforded to them until Thursday morn
ing.
"The whole of the next day they
wandered about in all directions, and
when toward evening they found anoth-
er hut, they were glad to seek shelter in
| it without attempting TO 90 further.
That was Monday night. Hunger made
them all very weak and miserable, and,
fearing not to have the force to rise and
walk on the morrow, they made up
their mind to eat what they could.
They boiled some of the straw, cut into
small bits, in snow, and this was all
their dinner on Monday. In the middle
of the night one of the brothers remem-
bered that he had some tallow candles
in his pocket. These were cut into
small pieces and swallowed. Their
wanderings on Tuesday were of as little
avail as those of Sunday and Monday
had been, only they all got tired so
much sooner, and were forced to re-
turn to their port of safety before the
night set in.
"On Wednesday morning the young
girl declared that she felt unable to
walk, and the brothers decided that
they must set out alone in search of
help and nourishment for their COM
panion. But the fog had grown worse,
and the snowstorm was so violent that
after half an hour they turned back.
They found the girl in a trance brought
about by hunger and frost, and they
rubbed her with ice and snow to revive
her. During her trance she sometimes
spoke, and once she said: 'Oh, how
delicious after such long fast!' She
was happy in her dreams-she was eat
ing. When the day changed to night
on Wednesday, the three unhappy
creatures gave up all hope, and they de-
cided to shoot themselves with revolv-
er one of the brothers had brought with
him, in hopes of firing from the top Of
the mountain. They all three agreed
that they preferred dying in this man
ner to being slowly starved to death.
"On Thursday morning at O'Clock
one of the young men opened the door
of the hut to look out, and with cry o.
delight he welcomed the clear sky and
the stars that shone upon it. Then
courage revived wonderfully when they
saw the mountain before them, and af
ter breakfast of straw soup and tallov
candles they set out. At 9 O'Clock they
reached the shelter-house, where q man
and his servant kept small inn. Herr
they refreshed themselves, after having
spent four days and four nights in tht
Rax-Alp. Their hands and feet were 81
frost-bitten that they only walked as fa
as they were compelled, and long befor,
they got to Payerback great number
were following in their rear, cheerin,
them and shaking hands with them.
telegram to Vienna not only summoned
numerous friends, but also severa
newspaper reporters, who came bacl
! with them in the train, and took note o
their wonderful adventures"