The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-02
ALPINE ACCIDENTS.
Nearly Two Hundred Fatal Ones in
Thirty-Six Years.
From the London Telegraph.


Since the year 1860 nearly 200 fatal ac-
cidents have occurred upon the Swiss
Alps alone OF these how many were
occasioned by maladroit, feeble or timid
climbers? The safety of every mountain
eering party demands in advance that
each member of it should be a practiced
and steady climber; that no serious as
cent should be undertaken by any man
who cannot rely upon his own nerve and
capabilities, his power of Drawing fatigue
ana standing cold; and, finally, that the
party should be accompanied by a sufti-
cient number of professional guides. Mr..
Leslie Stephens lays it down as a rule
that the loftiest mountain may be scaled
with safety by trained mountaineers, pro-
Vided that fine weather, good guides and
favorable conditions of rock and snow
have first been secured. con the other
hand" he adds, there is no mountain
which may not be excessively dangerous
II the weather be bad, the guides incom-
petent, the climbers inexperienced, the
conditions of rock or snow unfaVorable.'
Who for instance, can say with conf
dence until he has been tried that he has
nerve enough to stand the crucial test
which Prof. Agassiz confesses was al
most more than he could bear when, in
1871, he was one of party of twelve
who ascended the Jungfrau, half of them
being professional guides, with the cele-
DRAFTED Jacob Lenthold, who died soon af-
terward of consumption, at their head?
I'VE started, wrote Agassiz, from the
Grimsel hospice at o'clock a. m. on Aug.
q, 1S41, sleeping the first night at he cha
let's of Meril, and completing the ascent
of the Jungfrau next day. Our difficulties
were not a little increased by heavy mists
and intense cold. At last the ascent be-
came more and more steep, and every step
had to be cut ia the ice. Lenthold kept
.1l1r A. 80
snow, because the ice yielded there more
easily to the axe. 1t was, however, so
trying to our nerves that I, for one, should
not like to repeat the experience. The
awful precipice beneath us was con-
stantly in view, and we could drive our
alpenstocks through the rim of frozen
snow and gaze sheer down through the
hole into a vast amphitheater which SEEM
ed yawning to swallow us
thousands and thousands of yards
below The apex of the Jungfrau
is so small that only one person can stand
upon it. AT p. m. we started upon our
downward path, turning our faces to the
icy slope and feeling with the foot for
each step below, these steps being more
than 100 in all. At 11:3O o'clock p. M We
started upon our downward path, turn
ing our faces to the icy slope and feeling
with the foot for each step below, these
steps being more than 100 in all. At II 80
o'clock p. m. we reached the chalets of
Meril, which he had left that morning at
the earliest dawn of day" The least i'm
aginative mind can readily realize what
one false step made upon surface so
steep and slippery that it is impossible to
think of it without a shudder would have
involved. In the worst accident that ever
happened on the Matterhorn-that which
befell Lord Francis Douglas and his three
hapless companons-it is notorious that
one false step, made by an inexperienced
climber, and followed by the breaking of
a rope, was the sole cause of that terri
BILE tragedy,