Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1885-12-26
THE GUIDES OF THE ALPS,
And the PcriIs of CHM ing Noun
i'm Ssvi.ZerIand.

! The MatteIhorn rises between SwitZer-
land and Italy, lifting its gigantic pyra
mid OF rock fifteen thousand feet above
the sea. Its awful grandeur and weird
beauty are unrivallcd throughout the
whole Alpine range. For centuries the
Matterhorn dehed all attempts of men to
reach its summit. On the nth of July,
1865, Edward Whympcr the now cele-
DRAFTED English mountain climber, after
many futile efforts in former years. reach
cd the top of 1.-The impossible mountain"
He was accompanied by three friends,
and three experienced guides. When
they raised their flag on the mountain
top, the astonished people in the valleys
! greeted it with cheers. The ascent had
been made without mishap. The eiated
men started on their descent, hoping to
| meet the applause of Europe for their
daring. But the journey downwards
was marred by terrible tragedy. which
! shroudcd their triumph in horrible
| gloom. Their rope parted. Whympers
! three friends and one of the guides fell
down precipce four thousand feet high,
and were dashed to pieces on the rocks
! below.
! Alpine tragedies arc frequent. Still,
! when We consider the extent of travel
! across these giant mountains, the wonder
| is that the loss of life is not greater.
/ Hundreds of people are taken over the
glaciers and up the mountains every
summer. The desire for mountain
climbing, which has grown immensely
during the last fifty years, has developed
class of men whose business it is to lead
travellers through the dangerous regions.
j These are the guides.
The guides are to the Alps what the
! pilots are to the sea-
! These guides are natives of the Alpine
/ villages. In their youth they become
! familiar with every nook and Granny of
he earth giants. They roam from their
! pleasant hamlcts to the dcsolate and
| frightful valleys above, containing miles
of bouldcrs, debris, stones, sand and
mud; where there are but few trees, and
these placed So high as to be almost out
of sight; Whcra no human being dwcls;
where there are no birds in the air, no
fish in the water; where the mountains
arc TOO steep for chamois, too inhospit-
able for the marmot, and too rcpulsive
even for the eagle.
Guides earn from six to twenty francs
per day zone dollar and quarter to four
dolars) according to the nature of their
duties, the degree of peril to be encoun-
tered in their journeys, or the liberality
OF the party employing them.
As general rule, they are not reliable
after they are fifty years of age They
need to be young, in the prime of life,
strong, vigorous, with iron constitutions,
perfect health, perfect hearing, unfalter
ing nerves. Yet the first man who as
cended Mont Blanc was Balmat, the old
guide of De Saussurc. He was seventy
/ two at the time. He perished afterward
in a vain attempt to penetrate one of the
gloomy gorges accessible only to the
raven and the lammergcycr.
The Schreckhorn is thirteen thousand
three hundred and ninetv-four feet high.
1t is the deepest and stiffcst, and one of
the most laborious. climbs in the Alps.
Immense glaciers surround it. Antoine
CCurdet. Swiss guide, crossed the
Schreckhorn glacier one bright summer
morning. with a fellow nujde. and two
Americans OF this party Antoine alone,
two days after, returned to the VILLAGE
hosiery from which they had set out.
All mad gone well until the PARTY had
reared The summit. There thew met
with shower of rocks and stones which
came shooting down the mountain ac-
companicd bv LOUD REPORTS like the dis
charge of cannon.
Some of these fragments must have
weighed tons, Judging from their size
and they ranged downward t, mere peb-
bles. They were shot with the velocity
and precision of bullets, and upon this
little mountaineering rartv thew had the
effect OF warlikc nroiectiIcs for only
Antoine cscaped unhurt. The rest were
killed. Antoine owed his salvation to
an oyerllanging rock, beneath which he
crawlei when he heard the first report
These stone showers are amonu the
chief dangers of Alpine CLIMBING
Crevasscs may be avoided or crossed bv
extreme care, but fro n flvinp rocks there
is scarcely any safety. IIuoe nortious of
rocky cliffs are rent asundcr bv heat
| and frost and thew tinaliv burst from
their Judgments without yyarnino with n
noise like that of battery of artillery
They sweep down the mountains DESTROY.
ing everything before them. Sometimes
they dislodge great masses of earth and
snow which thunder down TO the valleys
in the form of an avalanche.
There are times when it requires very
little to start snow slide TO use 4 more
appropriate term, a snow-rush. Much
| I