St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1895-07-27
BRAVE ALPINE GUIDES.
Some Iiemarksble Deeds OF yalor and
strengt tn In Times of Peril.

ength-these, together with discre-
tion, are the great qualities that are
required from Alpine guides; and maEny
stirring stories are recorded of their
prowess at the needful hour. Here,
for example, is the story of great
de ed done by the brave Peter Knubel
ON the Lyskamm.
The LyskamH, itshou1d be remarked,
is one of tho most disagreeably dam
gerous mountains In the whole of
Switzerland. Most of the route lies
along ridge of Snow with steep
slope on one side of it, and a precipiee
veiled from view by cornice on the
other. The ascent on this occasion
had been made in safety, but during
the de scent an accident occurred. The
party, of course, were secured together
by the rope. One of them slipped. The
impetus of his fall dragged his nearest
companions from their foothold, and
the whole weight of three falling mem
came upon Peter Knubel. He knew
that he could not withstand 1t, and he
had only fraction of second In
which to decide what he would do. On
the instant, before the rope had time
to tighten, he threw himself over the
precipice, crashing through the cornice,
and hung suspended In shidair, balance
Ing his companions and checking their
fall long enough to enable them to get
their ice axes into play and cut. them
selves fre sh steps and haul old Peter
up on to the ridge again
1t was gallant deed, but it does not
stand alone In the gallant history Of
Alpine adventure. Peter Knubers IA
nous leap took place In 1871. In 1880
Ulrich Aimer saved a party In exactly
the same fashion, by a leap exactly
similar, on the Ober Gabelhorn; and
other guides have done the same thing
4 In later years, both on Monte Rosa and
on the Piz Bernina IN the Engadine.
This latter story, ind eed, has special
horror of its owa. which makes its re-
cital in the sinolsing-room of the Riffel-
haus or the Vermatter Hof even more
thrilling than the others. For, in this
case, the three men who doun dered on
the Ice slope had all lost their ice axes
as they fell. So the guide, whose body
swung on the face of the precipice,
balancing them, shouted:
There Is only one chance for US. I
am going to throw my ice AK oyer to
you. Look out for it, and catch it, for
III you miss it we are lost. Now, are
You ready? One--two-threel"
And then he threw it, and one of the
others caught it, and their lives were
saved, though the man who saved them
had got injuries from the strain, from
which he never afterward recovered.
These are typical anecdotes To show
OF what stern stuff the Alpine guides
are Jnade ane oz 81 Y0 ma lso be He=
pnysIcaI power ana enuufance goes.
The hero of the first story is Michel
Payot, of the village of Les Moussous,
near Chamounix, and the narrator Is
his employer, Mr.. James Eccles, for
whose benefit heexercised his strength.
Mr.. James Eccles and his guide were
going over the Col du Tour to Argen-
there, when Mr.. Eccles was suddenly
taken ILL.,
Several times,' he writes, did
Michael endeavor to impress on me the,
urgent necessity Of getting over the.
Col du Tour, and as gave little atten-s
tiop to his entreaties he lifted me onto
my legs and tried to lead me along.
His efforts were quite useless; my legs
refused to work, and / subsidized onto
the snow. It was half-past three
o'clock, and the position was serious.
Descent by the Glacier de TRENT was
not even to be thoug hit Of, and the dis
tance to the Col was yet considerable.
At last he cried out: It is absolutely
necessary that ] ca rry you, and carry
me he did. First, taking knapsacks.
ropes and Ice axes to distance OF
about one hundred yards onward, he
laid them down and returned to me.
Then he put me on his back and car
ried me about the same distance be-
yond the knapsaclxs, for which he re-
turned, after putting me IN my turn
on the glacier These ope ratiors were
repeated until we had passed the Col.
and descended a considerable distance
on the Glacier du Tour, when began
to recov er, and, with many halts and
descending very slowly, we arrived at
last at the village Of Le Tour"
Al strong man that! Yet here is q
story of a stronger man, too, VINO
was never famo us, and whose name
even has escaped my recollection,
though his wonderful achievement
dwells there wildly
1t happened ON an ice slope some
where ID the Eng adine. The guide
was cutting his way UP It, with y sin
gle tourist roped to him. Presently
the guide reached huge stone i'm
| beddad in the ice, and to all appear
ance so firmly fixed that it might be
safely trodden on. He stepped on It.
and to his horror IL began 10 move,
rolling down the slope In the direction
of his companion and threatening to.
sweep him from his foothold into the
abyssrna1 crevasse of the glacier be-
low. 1t seemed as th ough nothing but
the cutting of the rope could save
them both from being carried to their
destruction, But the guide was equal
| to the emergency He put his foot back
instantly into the step that he had
Quilted, and standing firmly on his left
foot, grasped the rope with his right
hand and jerlxed his companion from
| his place. Like d weight at the end of
1 q pendulum the man swung, hanging
from his gui de's waist, far out Of the
way of the falling bowlder. Then when
| the stone had passed he swung back
i again, arrested himself with his ak,
and once more got into the steps
4 Another characteristic of great
guides i'd the wonderful skill with
i which they find their way through diff
II a -.