Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-08
ALPINE ACCIDENTS.
Some Terrible Experiences and the
Causes That Lead to Them.
Francis Gribble In Outing


According to experts, Alpine accidents
ought never to happen, because rules have
peen laid down for avoiding them. This is
true, Just as 1t would be true to say that
II chess player never made a bad move
ne would never lose game. But bad
moves are made in the mountains no less
than on the chessboard.
On the whole, Alpine accidents are very
real things. They mainly happen % when
| the climber falls off the mountains e,
when the mountain or some portion of it
falls on the climber, 60 when the climber
loses his way or is weatherbound.
The simple fall, Of course, is mainly an
incident of rock-climbing. 1t is particu-
larly frequent in the Dolomites, where
many Of the peaks that are assembled look
rather more difficult to climb than prison
walls. Sometimes it happens because foot
hold or handhold which seems secure gives
way beneath the climbers weight, as was
the case in the last terrible accident on
the Dent Blanche
The classical example of this sort Of ac-
cldent Is the famous accident to Mr..
Whympers party on the Matterhorn. 1t
is an old and well-known story, but one
may venture to repeat 1t in the briefest
possible outline.
1t happened on the way down, at the
point where the angle of inclination alters
and the mountain suddenly becomes steep
den from those above them. Michel Croz,
the guide, was in front. Then followed
Mr.. Hadow, the Rev. Charles Hudson.
Lord Francis Douglas, the old and young
The lame duck of the party was Mr.. Hadow.
He was tired out and could hardly move.
Croz was obliged to keep close to him in
order to join his feet into the proper foot
holds. He slipped, fell against Croz,
and knocked him, too, from his foothold
Croz fell ten or twelve feet through the air
and then the Shock came. Instantly Hud-
son and Lord Francis Douglas were drag
ged from their places, and the weight of
the four falling men came upon the other
three, who planted themselves firmly and
chung to the rocks, the jerk coming on
them as on one man. Even then nothing
could have saved them if the rope had held.
But the rope broke and its parted strands
separated the Giving and the dead. There
were four dead bodies on the glacier, 1900
feet below. and three terror-stricken men
clinging to the Matternhorn crags.
Lord Francis Douglas, before his death
on the Matterhorn, had fallen off such an
arete on the dangerous Ober-G abelhorn.
Happily, his guide, seeing him fall. did the
he leaped over the arete on the opposite side
to that on which Lord Francis Douglas had
fallen. The two men balanced each other
as they lay slung across the ridge by the
rope; they had not let go Of their ice axes
and were presently able to scramble up
onto 1t again. Other guides have been
known to do the same thing on the arete
of Monte Rosa and on certain aretes In the
Engadine. 1t Is the only thing to be done
under the circumstances: but 1t is not easy
while sitting at home to realiz how much
presence of mind is needed to do it.
Turning to the second group of accidents
the cases in which the accident occurs
because something has fallen upon the
climber-we have to do with avalanches.
These are avalanches Of snow. OF Ice and
Of rock: but the snow avalanches are the