Evening star., 1901-05-31
SCALING ALPINE PEAKS
1T IS PERILoUs BUSINESS AT THE
best.
slight Causes Bring Down nm Ava
Ianrhe-Aiunys i'm Danger of sud-
den Denth-FatnI Accidents.

| From Outing.
According to the experts Alpine acct
dents ought never to happen because rules
have been laid down for avoiding them.
This is true. just 1t would be- true to
| say that If a chess player never made a
bad move he would never lose a 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 first
when the climber falls of the mountain:
| second when the mountain or some por-
tion of 1t falls on the climber: third when
the climber loses his way or is weather.
! bound
The simple fall. Of course is mainly an
incident of rock climbing II is partic-
ularly frequent in the Dolomites where
many of the peaks that are ascended 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-
cident Is the famous accident to Mr..
! Whymper's party on the MatterhOrn Ii
is an old and well-known story. hut one
may venture to repeat it in the briefest
possible outline.
! 1t happened on the way down at the
1 point where the angle of Inclination alters
| and the mountain suddenly becomes steep
| er. so that the leaders Of the party were
! hidden from those above them. Michel
| Croz, the guide, in front. Then fol-
lowed Mr.. Hadow. Rev. Charles Hudson.
| Lord Francis Douglas. the old and young
| Tangwalders and Mr.. Whymper himself.
! The lame duck OF the party was Mr.. Ha-
dow. 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 footholds He slipped. fell against
| Croz and knocked him. too from his foot
| hold. Croz fell ten or twelve feet through
the air and then the shock came.
Courageous Guides.
Instantly Hudson and Lord Francis
| Douglas were dragged from their places,
and the weight of the four falling men
| came upon the other three, who planted
themselves firmly and clung to the rocks,
the jerk coming on them one man. Even
then nothing could have saved them IL the
| rope had held. But the rope broke and its
! parted strands separated the living and the
dead. There were four dead bodies on Inc
! glacier, 1000 feet below, and three terror
stricken men clinging To the Mattorhorn
| crags.
Lord Francis Douglas before his death
| on the Matterhorn had fallen off such nm
| arete on the dangerous Ober-tiahelho
! happily his guide. seeing him fall, did the
! only thing possible 10 save both their lives
| re 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 slUns across the ridge 10y
the rope; they had not let go of their ice
akes ana were presently able to scramble
! UP on to ii 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 cir
| cumstances, but ii is not easy while sitting
at home to realize how much presence OF
mind is needed to do IL.
! Turning to the second group Of accidents
which he h,a-
fore something has fallen upon the climber
we have to do with avaianches. There
are avalanches of snow OF ice and of rock,
| but the snow avalanches are the more fire.
| quent and the most important.
! Canon GirdleStone of oxford r. lates how
he once sat down to lunch in the track of
! such an avalanche and had only just time
| to scurry out Of the way before it whizzed
| past, and that great climber. Mr.. Tuckett.
once had race with an avalanche on the
Eiger glacier.
| This is one kind OF avalanche accident
| Another and more common kind is when
the climbers themselves start the
| lanche. They are traVersing a slope of ice
! on which a certain amount of fresh snow
has fallen their footsteps loosen the snow
and set 1t sliding. 1t trips them up and
/ carries them down with it. The slide ends
/ in a crevasse: the danger is that they will
fall into it and that the snow Will follow
| them and bury them alive. Yet there are
| men who have been carried away by such
avalanches and escaped alive. The mosr
famous man who underwent such expert
! ence was the late Prof. TyndaH.
Riding an Avalanche.
! 1t happened on the Piz Morteratsch In
the Engadine. in 1864. The professor.
| with two friends, Mr.. Hutchinson and
Lee Warner. and two guides named Jenni
and Walter. had occasion to cross a gully
filled with hard fee coated with new snow.
The slope led straight down onto a glacier
with yawning crevasses in 1t. Jenni, who
was very famous guide, ought TO have
| known better than 10 venture in that gully.
He had not led his party very far onto it
| when he realized the danger and warned
| the others TO tread gingerly. as a false
step here might start an avalanche"
| The word says Prof. Tyndall. was
| scarcely uttered when heard the sound OF
a fall behind me. then a rush. and in a
| moment my two friends and their guide.
/ all apparently entangied together. whiried
| past me. / suddenly planted myself to re-
| sist their shock, but in an instant | was in
/ their wake, for their impetus was irresisti-
BILE. moment afterward Jenni was
W Whirled away, and thus. in a twinkllng OF
an eye. all five of us found ourselves riding
downward with uncomfortable speed on
the back of an avalanche which a single
slip had originated" "
There was nothing to clutch at no
means of arresting the descent. They tried
to put on the brake by grinding the points
of their alpenstocks into the ice, without
| the least result. In a sense, as il turned out
their Very speed was their salvation. 1t
caused them to shoot over the gaming Gre
vases into which they would have tum-
| bed heplessly If they had been going at
slower rate. But there We're other Gre
vases lower down. Could they stop them
selves before reaching these? II was Just
a chance. and the chance happened to be
in their favor
we came to rest so near the brow that
two or three seconds Of our average mo-
ton OF descent must have carried us over
Had this occurred should have fallen
INTO the chasms and been covered up by
lhe tall or the avalanche. Hutchinson
emerged from the snow with his forehead
bleeding: Jenni had bit of flesh removed
from his hand by collision against a stone"
No one however. was seriously
hurt, though the professor found that ne
had lost his watch.
Terrible Snow Storms
Finally, there are the Incidents which
are due to blizzards. Mt Blanc has been
the principal scene of these, for on that
the distances are great. the snow fields are
wide and the chance of losing your way
Is good. You may scoop yourself sort of