Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1897-01-23
ALpI.E ACCIDENTS.
Nearly Two Hundred Fatal Ones IN
ThiFfy-Six Years.

Nearly Two Hundred Fatal Ones IN
ThiFfy-Sfx Years.
Since the year 1860 nearly 200 fatal
accidents have occurred on the Swiss
Alps alone. OF these how many were
occasioned by maladroit. feeble or TIM
i'd climbers? The safety of every
mountaineering party demands in ad-
vance that each member of it should be
practical and steady climber; that no
serious ascent should be undertaken by
any man who can not rely upon his
own nerves aid capabilities, his power
of Drawing fatigue and standing cold;
and, finally, that the party should be
accompanied by a sufficient number of
professional guides. Mr.. Leslie Ste
phens lays 1t down as rule that the
loftiest mountain may be sealed with
safety by trained mountaineers, pro-
vided that fine weather, good guides
and favorable conditions of rock and
snow have first been secured. ION the
other hand" lie adds, there is no
mountain which may not be excessive
ly dangerous IL the weather be bad,
the guides incompetent. the climbers
inexperienced, the conditions of rock or
snow unfayorable." Who, for instance,
! can say with confidence until he has
been tried that he has nerve enough 10
stand the crucial test which Prof. Ag-
ASST confesses was almost more than
he could bear, when, in 1s41. he was
one of party of twelve who assembled
| the Jungfrau, half of them being pro-
| fessional guides, with the celebrated
1 r. dfe1 - flor
ward of consumption at their head!
I'VE started" wrote Agassiz. from
! the Griinsel hospice at o'clock n. m,
ON Aug. %. 1871. sleeping the first
night at the chat of --eril and com
pleting the ascent of the Jurgfrau the
/ next day. Our difficulties were not a
! little increased by heavy mists and in
tense cold. At last the ascent became
| more and more steep. and every step
had to be cut in the ice. Lentholt kept
up close to the edge of. tie ridge of
frozen snow, because the ice yielded
there more readily TO the ak. 1t was,
however. so trying TO our nerves that
/, for one. should not like to repeat the
experience. The awful precipice be-
Meath us was constantly in view. and
we could drive our alpenstocks through
the rim of frozen snow and gaze shee.
down through the hole into vast am
phitheater which seemed yawning to
swallow us. thousands and thousands
OF yards below. The apex of the Jung
frau is SO small that only one person
can stand upon ii. At 4 p. M. VIC start
ed upon our downward path. turning
our faces 10 the icy slope, and feeling
with the foot for each step below
those steps being more than 700 In all
At 1870 o'clock p. m. we reached tn
chatlets of Meril, which we had lief
that morning ut the earliest dawn o
day" The least imaginative mind eel
readily realize that one false step mad
upon n surface so steep and slipper.
that II is impossible 10 think of it with
, out shudder would have involved
In the worst accident that ever of
Cured ON the Matterlorn-that whic
: befel Lord Francis Douglass and hi
: three haplcss companions-it is MOTOR
/. GUS that one false step made by an il
experienced climber, and followed b
!. the breaking of a rope. was the sol
! cause of the terrible tragedy.-Londo
! Telegraph.