The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-24
MOUNTAIN CLIMBING.
ITS PERILS AND THE MEANS
 OF AVOIDING
Them Described By Veteran AL
 pinist.

| pinist.
 l Mountain climbing is a craft which 1 has tWo-fold object-the attainment of the point which it is desired to reach and the avoidance of accidents in so doing. The first is gained by skill, the second by prudence and experience. Accidents are caused either by things falling upon the climber or by the climber himself falling.
 When I speak of accidents l mean practically unavoidable misfortunes. More than half the deaths that annual ly occur on the Alps are caused by ne glect of the most rudimentary precau- tions, and are not properly accidents. True Alpine accidents are those which occur in spite of foresight and pre- caution They have always been few, and when the continually increasing number of climbers is reckoned they Emay be said to decrease rather than increase in frequency.
 The things that by falling upon climbing party may produce fatal re- suits are rocks, ice and snow. All rock mountains are falling to pieces-some faster than others-under the action or alternate frost and thaw. Water trickles into cracks on warm day. At night Nit freezes, and in freezing expands. It. thus acts like a wedge to widen cracks and tear rocks asunder. Thus the whole face of most rock mountains is cum bered with loose stones balanced on ledges and ready to fall when the least impulse Is applied. One stone in mo- tion starts others, and they in turn many more. In this manner a whole rock face may be swept by myriads of falling rocks of all shapes and sizes Such falls are fairly common on the east face of the Matterhorn. That is | why the route followed up it keeps as l cIose as possible to the edge of the face. | face.
 l Rock faces are usually furrowed With tracks called gullies and coulolrs, worn by the stones falling down them. IT gully is straight, stones generally tall down the middle of 1t, and the sldes may be climbed in comparative safety- Some faces of rocks are less liable to be stone swept than others; an eXper1- ~nced climber knows the signs of dan ger. When there is much recently fall en snow on the rock face stones do not | fall s6 often as when the snow is all melted away. A good climber bears all these facts in mind, and knows what | to look out for.
 l As with stones, so with ice; it does not fall anywhere and anyhow; it has its habits, which may be learned by ob- servation. Except in the lower part of a glacier, ice seldom appears on the surface. People talk vaguely of ice when they mean hard frozen snow. Where a glacier descends very steep and uneven slope it breaks up into l great Jumps of ice, which are called seracs. Seracs often tumble, but sei- dom in the early part of day. It IS generally easy to perceive, whether given serac is ready to fall, or whether if is firm. A well chosen route avoids the track where the seracs may be eX- pected to fall The crests of some mar row snow ridges are fringed with an l overhanging wave of ice, called cor nice. Cornices grow slowly by accre- ton of snowfakes, when they become to big they fall, and woe to the man on whom they fall! The wise man does not pass under great cornice.
 Falling snow is called a snow avalan- che. Snow avalanches only fall in easily recognizable tracks Most of them fall in springtime, before climb ing begins The summer avalanches fall after fresh snow has accumulated during bad weather. Avalanches, how ever. seldom fall on climbers. Usually an accident is caused by the climbing party starting an avalanche. PfoIessor Tyndall nearly lost his life in this way He was crossing a steep slope or snow in the Afternoon, after it had been so1t- ened by hot sunshine. It cracked across and the whole surface-a foot deep or so-slid down, carrying his par ty with it. By good luck they escaped from the rear of the avalanche before ,ea ching the edge of a cliff, over which if fell A prudent climber avoids cross- | ing rotten snow slopes that are steep. l Most accidents, however, are caused bv falls from rocks, ice or snow. Care- fu1 climbers seldom fall from rocKs.
 vhav do not undertake ascents that are hevond the skill of their party. If the | guides are good enough for the par
 
 ticular climb, two of them will render any tolerable climber safe by proper use of the rope. While they are nov ing he keeps still. When he moves they remain firmly planted, and draw III the rone as he advances If he slps they oos;,v hold him. If an amateur IS as good as a. guide he may be counted in- eta.d of one. but such amateurs are few. and are men of long experience who have learned their craft by worK- ing with guides. o,oo,,
 A fall from ice is less easy to cnech. Tho dangerous places are steep slopes
 s ,oo, ioe-hard blue ice like the sur faoe of frozen pond set up at an an- gle Steps cut in such material are Themselves quite s'irrerv. If slope of this kind is very long, and takes per banas hours to ascend, the time comes when carelessness in footing CT pal- ance may lead to shp. Il t,e iiiai 1 o1;otalv 1hOVe the one