The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-03-02
Notwithstanding Fatalities
in Alps on the Increase.
ONE AMERICAN WOMAN
Numbered Among Those Lost
in the Last Year.

a report just issued by the. Alpine
Club shows that 1I9 people lost theii
lives during the year 1901 while climbing
the Alps-more than double the number
Tor the previous year Most Of the acct
dents occurred in the neighborhood OF
Chamounix and were due TO the fooIhar-
diness and inexperience Of the tourists.
The number of accidents suffered by ex-
perienced climbers was comparatively
small. It is not question of danger,
therefore. but a question Of folly.
Switzerland and the Tyrol are becom-
ing the holiday ground for more and more
people every year, and il may be expected
the lives lost VIII be in the same pro-
portion. Theincreased number of acct
dents is therefore exactly what might
have been expected. Where one tourist
attempted 10 scale a rocky mountain side
or ?. glacier ten years ago there are TWEEN
" or perhaps fifty nowadays with the
delusion that anybody with an Alpen-
stock and pair Of aobnaned boots can
90 either and what is verse. most Of
them are so confident Of their own ability
that they wiz not take the precaution
70 employ n competent guide. As the
same time many guides VIII so anywhere
for tie sake Of a fee.
Nothing attests the nerve and the cour-
age and endurance Of a man as does
lnosntain climbing and it is quite as
much Of a science as any ether form Of
athletic sport Experienced men can tel
at a glance the safest and the most ac-
cessihle paths and where anc between
What hours there viii be the LEASE risk
81 f3iliIg stones. Swiss guides who have
tecn taken 10 the Andes and II the
11imalayas and even 10 our own Amer
lean mountains have never failed to ac-
coHllish ascents which mer without ex.
perience have considered impossible. 1t
is simTi Il matter Of ability acquired
ly long patient study. yet any ordinary
tourist iInagines that because one man
can accomplish tile feat another may do
the same even if he has never seen a
glacier The greatest number OF accidents
occur iron Mont Blanc. because that Is
the easiest TO reach ard most fashionable
ri all the Swiss mountains but at the
same time it is the most dangerous
because Of meteorological conditions. The
weather is iiltly TO change at any time,
The onlv American who appears in the
fist that We're killed in the Alps las sum
mer is Mrs. Eta Smith. the wife Of
Brooklyn lawyer.
There have been accidents to people
who were not tourists which probably
could NOT have been prevented. At Cham
bery sergeant and ten men belonging
TO Battalion Of Alpine chasseurs " ere
overwhelmed by an avalanche, AMI only
three Of The bodies were recovered
Dr. W. ". Crook Of England. secretary
of an Alpine club and man OF long ex-
perience -n climbing. slipped on glacier
of the Matterhorn last August ana feu
down a crevasse in which the snow was
sixty feet deep. He was completely
buried, aud lay there helpless fer four
hours until rescued 10y his companions.
lie lived only q fcyg DAVIS
Herr HitEaler. president Of IN Alpine
clab IN Vienna. fell over a precioice en-
the Iithaler-Weg. which was named
after him and had been thoroughly ex-
plored by him during the last ten years.
lie wss instantly killed. The same dss-
TWO members OF the club. an artist nam
ed Meier and an official named Srotel. /
started up the Harwendelgeborg and have {
not returned. The mountains have been
thoroughly searched but no traces Of /
their bodies have ben found
Two English girls. Misses Margaret and +
Ethel Tr3hord OF Bedford. who were .
spending the sumner at Engleberx near
zurich attempted 10 cross the Sohloss- +