Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-10-04

climbing. Mont Blanc looks ike such q
harmless affair from Chamounsx, ana
the telescope brings Struggling H1ihah-
| ity on the face of the Matternora so
close to the newly arrived tourist at the
Zermatt Hotel that it appears TO nm
that he would be about as likely 10 en-
counter demons in his own back yard
as TO meet great peril out yonder So
ont he goes expecting 10 WIN cheanl!
the plaudits of the hotel draWlng-room.
Two of the most remarkable acct
| dents which have happened this season
s,a tvpical of the two distinct sources
or death in the Alps-dsaster, pure and
simple. and carelessness. Probably no
one could be held responsible for the
| Wetterhorn casualty few days ago.
in which James Brown, banker, of
| Aberdeen. and Solomon Knubel, guide,
lost their lives, and William Garden
| and Theodul Imboden, the second
guide, were badly injured.
| They had made their climb and,
dashed together, were picking their
wav down the mountain when an.
avalanche struck them. They whirled
over and over blinded and suffocated
| with snow and beaten with rocks, down
| a decline with drop of more than q
thousand feet. ending in glacier.
| Brown and the guide Knubel had been
frightfully pounded. The velocity OF
| their fall broke the rope that hound
! them to The rocks at the foot CT the
precipice At the bottom Garden final
! Nv managed to gather his senses to-
gether and look about for his friends.
| His guide was near him. gasping
family. Garden craWled over and
| tried to nour some wine between his
lips. but it was no use; the poor fellow
died almost instantly. Brown was
| found Just above, past all suffering.
The second guide was discovered fifteen
| feet below. out of his mind through
terror and pain.
| Nothing could be done for him, so
Garden crawled away to some nearby
| rocks. where he could make himself
| heard and seen. and in time attracted
| the attention of travellers, who at once
| went off for neip. The wounded Garden
| had to wait fer them eight hours with
| two dead men and one wailing, crazy
| man for company in bitter cold and a
| furious halstorm with Eghtning-an
| accumulation of horrors that one rare
| " finds outside the pages of 4 novel.
| Or. Larging. president of the Berne
| Court. lost his life in August through
ascending the Nadelhorn without
| guide His head was smashed and both
| legs broken.
| A London youth named Gilmore Slip
bed out from his hotel at Cha bies re-
Gently with friend and began an as
cent in ordinary shoes without spike
nails and without guide. He would
| = h.I
| known Of his intention. He climbed
! further UP than it had been supposed
| possible to go without q rope. He kept
| climbing out of the path and insisted on
| crawling onto dangerous places, to the
| alarm of his friend. Don't be afraid,
| called back Gilmore on the last of these
ventures. there's nothing to be afraid
| Of Then there was cry. and then
silence. Gilmore's dead body was
| found supported in midair by a fir tree,
with one leg and several ribs broken.
| his backbone smashed and two gaping
| wounds in his mead. The guides reach
ed the corpse with great difficulty and
had to lower it into the valley below.
| The boys parents were travelling some
where on the continent at the time and,
as no address was known, his body was
|
| should read of the tragedy in the news
papers and come to get it.
| One of the first tragedies of this sea-
| son in the Alps was also the result of
| foOlhar1iness. Marie Gauchet, Il
| Frencn-woman. was with a party max
! ing its way across the Mauvais pass so
| called for its difficulties. Along the
| face of the cliff rope had been placed
| So that climbers could grasp it, but this
| the headstronG French woman fiouted.
| Just as she WAS crossing the worst part
of the pass a guide who was standing
| near by offered to give her a hand. but
, she thanked him with a smile and trot-
| ted on alone. One minute afterward
her aipenstock slipped and she went
| hurting down into a gorge, from which,
an hour afterward. her body was taken,
| r1anglcd and shapeless.
When the final day of judgment
comes many of the dead will have far
| shorter journey than those who found
rest in the sea, for the Alps do not al
| ways surrender their victims. On one
| terrible occasion a whole party of
eleven persisted close to the summit of
| Mont Blanc and only five of the bodies
| We're ever found.
| The passion for mountain climbing
| seems. anyway. to be sort of mania.
An old frequenter of Switzerland re-
marked the other day: Study the man
| i'll the Swiss hotels and you will find
him. as a rule, a weird and eXtraor-
binary being. He has a curiously
shaped head. his beard is trimmed fam
| tastically or not trimmed at all: his
clothes are an extravaganza. Talk
with him, and what is his talk? 1t is
about mountains and more mountains,
and more mountains still. His eye
flashes fire. he raves wildly OF I'M
known beauties. of the delights of fac
ing death. In fact. he betrays all the
symptoms that would have stamped
him III the mind of Burton as mad
/ man.
This is the sort of man for whose
death the honest. painstaking guide
| generally gets the blame. once in a
long time, of course, it happens that
the guide is to blame--for instance,
| when, for the sake of earning a days
| wages, he leads party into the noun
tains when he knows that a storm is