The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-20

How 1t Is Done.
To mortals of limited lung expansion
and undeveloped golf stockings, it is
interesting to know how it is done
There are the ponies and the packers.
who carry the camp impedimenta to
the place from which the assault is
TO be made-to the foot of the noun
tain which is to be assembled. These
choose the site, pitch the tent, fetch
the water, cut the firewood, get up be-
fore sunrise on the day of the ascent.
and have the steaming coffee and the
boiled eggs ready for the warrior
Tben their task is over, they have
nothing more to do except to sit down,
smoke their pipes and await results
The problem now belongs to the
climber and his Swiss guides. Trained
guides are brought over every summer
from Switzerland and stationed at the
four headquarters for climbing, Banff,
Lake Louise, Field, and Glacier. These
four, and no more are the centers of
this piece of the Rockies with which
we are dealing. Behold, then, your
two asprants for Alpine honors, and
their two Swiss guides. All of them
are armed with the same weapon, a
strong ash stick with sharp steel
spike at one end, and an ice-ax with
spike at the other. On the strength
of that one instrument depends the
life and safety of every member of the
party. They are manufactured in
England and brought to this country.
No bogus work wanted here. In ad-
dition the guides carry stout Alpine
club rope for rOping the four men to-
gether Nailed boOts-such food as you
can carry in pocket-perhaps a
camera slung over the shoulder with a
field glass-and the outfit is complete.
Food plays a very little part. The
climber must go as lightly loaded as
possible. By that nights first dark
ness he will either be back in camp,
or he may never be back For the
dangers are many and great. The
rope must be strong, to withstand the
fraying by jagged rock and ice; to hold
the unhappy mortal up who who is
hanging over an awful precipice or
half way down some terrible crevasse
in the ice. He is in danger of slip
ping down the face of the sheer preci-
p1ce of rock, up which he is climbing,
or in danger of breaking through a
thin coating of ice down into a mou-
lin or well-hole in the glacier. And
then the sudden jerk of one man fall
ing might carry the whole outfit off
their feet, and a toboganning slide be
begun which has no equal in this NOR
tai life. But this rarely happens.
The other day the climber in the
middle between two guides fell, sus-
pended over precipice, 1900 feet deep;
one guide went off his feet, but soon
recovered, craWled back, united himself,
started off after help, while the other
guide stood for hours braced against
rock, holding the suspended man, who
could not help himself till assistance
arrived. Even when these dangers are
Gil 1fa11T1 Cd fe- = 70
common in these mountains. e., the
constant aValanches pouring down day
and night, of rock and ice. l passed
round the base of Beehive mountain
yesterday, streWed everywhere with
splintered rock of enormous boulderS,
which came down like the Bible thief,
lin an hour that ye know not Of" A
curious octagon rock, round as bat
tlemented tower, sheer up and down
for thousands of feet, only sloping at
the base where the shattered rock made
a stream down through the forest, at
any moment the frost hammer and ice
saw might loosen some thousand tons
of trock to crash and splinter on the
base beneath. To such things is the
mountain climber hourly exposed. Last
night it stormed and ragged around the
chalet; throughout the night l heard
the roar of apparent thunder; nay, as
these words fall from my pen 1 hear the
loud muttering of this same apparent
thunder. look UP towards the glacier;
no thunder, this but hundreds of tons
of rock and ice I see falling from the
highest terraces of the ice field, down
DER rocks and ice and glacier; leaping,
shattered, into thousands of pieces
from crag to crag, until the battered
remains lie passive on the hither bosom
of the ice field, process that has been
going on from the most distant geologic
age.
these avalanches that lie in the path
of the Alpine climber, and l am done.
In June of this year Turtle mountain,
overlooking the Canadian Pacific Rail-
road. split in half, without word or
warning, and one-half fell over on the
town of Frank, completely burying the
village and it's inha bitants under tons
of splintered rock.
The Joys of Alpine Climbing
But when all dangers-crevasse,
precipice and avalanche-have been
surmounted what joys await the sue
cessful mountaineerl Not only the
strong sense of physical vigor-the
health giving air of mountain tops
the steadied nerve-the quickened
blood but OH such scenes in these
Rockies as mortal man never dreamed,
and no human method of expression
ran convey. Even the amateur-to
whom the highest peaks are not open
finds many a mountain within the
compass of his powers, from whose
TOP his eyes are permitted to gaze up
on worlds both new and strange.
There is climbing work here IN the
two ranges of the Selkirks and Rockies
for every known capacity. To the pro-
fessional and his Swiss guides we leave
In r11ic
Goodsir, Aylmor, Hector, ice-clad Tenn
ple and Victoria, and hosts of I'M
named monarchs to the north; content
are we for the lesser glory of Rumble,
Stephen. Cascade, Sir Donald and the
peaks which cleave the air at lO,OOO
feet of altitude In this belt of 200 miles
from east to west, there are four de-
parture points, each of which repre-
sents a distinct stage of mountain
and glacier climbing. Bann is the
FIRST center. and this may be called
the preparatory mountain stage, l. e,
there are no glaciers, some snow and
ice on the peaks, and all the mountains
ouite within the compass of the anna
teur and the gentlemen of the third
class who climb mountains on ponies.
Rare and awful mountains everywhere,
but no glaciers.
The valley following the wind
ing Bow river. with many
tortuous course. and the green of the
spray and the blue of the Vermilion
lakes. lying in an amphitheater--such
is the water scenery at Banff. Then
the guards and sentinels of the noun
tains everywhere. To the east by
south, the Ingismaldie range, under
the command of Pee-chee join general
direction with the Fairholme to guard
The line of the sunrise and the south.
Castle and massive mountains per-