The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-10-02

Finally, there Is the danger-and this
perhaps greatest of all-from weather.
Easy though Mont Blanc may be as long
as the weather is good, there is not noun
tain in all the Alps which can become so
dangerous in storm. Every one WAC has
had experience of climbing knows how
weather can affect a mountain, and how
an ascent, which is easy enough one day,
may become dangerous if not impossible
the next. 1t is quite a mistake to suppose
that because mountain offers no phySi-
cal difficulties, that there is no risk
attending the ascent. We have Mont
Blanc as case in point. Easiest of all the
great mountains, he has proved himself
the most fatal of any.
The first accident within our knowledge
which occurred on Mont Blanc was that to
DR.. HamePs party in 1920, and being the
first accident to Alpine climbers it created
at the time an immense sensation. From
accounts published by the survivors, it
seems clear that the accident was caused
by ignorance of the state of the snow-ig-
norance excusable enough in those days
when, as a matter of fact, the art of climb
ing was very little understood. On August
Is, 1920, Russian professor, DR.. Hamel !;
two Oxonians, Messrs. Durnford and Hen
derson; Genevese named Sellique; and
twelve guides, left Chamouni, and in
twelve hours-about double the time now
taken-reached the rocks of the Grands
Nulets. Here they pitched tent, which
they had brought with them, and passed
the night. Bad weather came on after
sunset; and as it did not clear next morn
ing in time for them to start, they had to
pass another night in the tent. 1t came on
to rain again in the evening; but the fol-
lowing morning, August 20, was fine, and
it was determined to make push for the
summit. AT this juncture, M. Sellique was
overcome with ''scruples" on the subject
of making the ascent, and declined to &C
q al
in charge of two of the guides. The rest of
the party set out at five a. m. Tie weather
Kept fine; but the snow-to quote one of
the survivors-was found to be rather too
soft" They would appear to have fol-
lowed the line of ascent usually adopted in
these days. until opposite the Dome du
Goute, and on level with it. when
they branched off sharply to the
left and commenced to traverse a steep
snow-slope, directing their course straight
for the Mont Maudit. They were not roped,
and were apparently proceeding in Indian
file, when suddenly the snow gave beneath
their feet, and carried them away bodily
down the slope. They were all carried a
great dlstance-some accounts say twelve
hundred feet-and then the whole ava
lanche buried itself in a great crevasse.
The three leading guides were completely
overwhelmed; but the rest of the party
stopped short of the crevaSSe, and were
saved. The survivors made frantic efforts
to rescue their unfortunate companions;
but the poor fellows must have been buried
under many tons of snow, and these efforts
were unavailing.
1t was scarcely thought probable that
trace of them would ever again be found;
but after the lapse of nearly half a CEN
fury, the glacier yielded up its dead. In
1868, or forty-three years after the catas
trophe, portions of human bodies, the de-
bris of a lantern and Alpenstock, and the
leaves of Latin book. were found imbed-
ded in the ice on the surface of the Glacier
des Bosons and near its foot. They were
recognized as belonging to the lost guides
of DR.. Ha,nel's party. Further discoveries
were made in the two following years; and
of the relics thus brought to light some are
preserved 10 this day by the Alpine Club
in their rooms at st. Martins Place.
This accident afforded strong evidence in
favor of the fact of glacier motion, for the
remains were found to have been carried
by the ice distance of nearly five miles
from the spot where the catastrophe &C.
Cured.
Almost simultaneously with the finding
of the relics of DR.. Hamel's Inflated ex-
petition, occurred another accident on
Mont Blanc On August 9, 1864, young
porter named Ambrose Couttet, while ac-
companying two Austrian gentlemen in
the ascent of Mont Blanc, fell into crevasse
on the Grand Plateau. This was an accci-
dent attributable entirely to carelessness,
for it appears that at the moment of the
catastrophe Couttet was walking apart
from the others and quite unattached. His
companions did their best to effect a rescue :;
but the crevasse was of such great depth
that they could not come near him. A
party of guides subsequently went out
with the object of recovering the body; but
although two of their number descended
ninety feet into the crevasse, they failed to
| l.. = IL. ,N,.v,
terrible nature of the fall, that the I'M
fortunate mans death must have been in
Simultaneous.
There were two sad accidents on Mont
Blanc in 1866. The precise cause of the
first is somewhat obscure, but the facts as
far as they are known are these: Sir
George Young and his two brothers, I'M
accompanied by guides, set out to ascend
Mont Blanc on August %, and succeeded in
reaching the summit in safety. They had
not proceeded far in the descent, when, for
some reason unexplained, one of the party
slipped and dragged down the other two.
They slid for a short distance, then fell a
height of twenty feet or so, and were
finally stopped by soft snow. Sir George
and his second brother escaped serious in
jury; but the youngest BROTHER Mr.. Bulke-
ley Young, was found to have broken his
neck.
The accident to Captain Arkwright's
party was of different description, and
in many respects bears close resemblance
to that in which DR.. Hamel's guides lost
their lives. On the 18th of Octobes'-un-
usually late in the year for such an expe-
dition-Captain Arkwright with one guide,
Michel Simond, and two porters, started
from the Grands Mulets to ascend Mont
Blanc. At little distance they were fol-
lowed by the landlord of the Pierre PojntWe,
Silvian Couttet and porter-these two
having apparently come for their own
pleasure-on a separate rope. The guides
probably by reason of it's being shorter
route, and as such, likely to save time-an
important matter at this time of the year
chose the route adopted by Dr. Hameps
party, and which had come to be known
by the name of the Ancien Passage. They
had almost reached the spot where the
disaster of 1920 occurred, when the roar of
an avalanche was heard. Couttet and his
companion, realizing the danger fled for
their lives. They were u little way behind
the others, and were so fortunate as to
escape; but Captain Arkwright and his
guides were caught by the avalanche and
swept away. This accident arose from
precisely the same cause as that which
happened to DR.. HamePs party-ignorance
of the state of the snow; but it differed in
one respect; whereas Dr. HamePS party
started the avalanche, tho avalanche which
proved fatal to Captain Arkwright and his
guides fell from above.
Tho fact of q second accident occurring
at the same place and from a similar cause
has given to the Ancien Passage the repu-
tation of being essentially unsafe. 1t is
not necessarily more dangerous than other
routes, and indeed it may even be tho
r..