The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-02-27

does reach us. only those whose knowl- edge of Alpine topography is minute have ever heard the name of the con- quered summit Nowadays. in fact. the principal features which distinguish one climbing season from another are the quality of the weather and the number and nature of the accidents.
 Whether the season now closing, if mot closed, will like the seasons of 1901 and 1900. establish a new record in the matter of accidents is a question that cannot be confidently answered until the various Alpine clubs publish the statis- tics which they so carefully compile; but, as far as the weather is concerned, no climber. in whatever center he may have climbed, is likely to wish to re- serve his judgment. Those must have very long memories indeed, who do not pronounce the summer the worst that they have ever known. Execrable weather in June was followed by exc crable weather in July. Just at the end | of July things began to look a little more promising.
 A first ascent was then made of the last remaining virgin summit in the Lauterbrunnen valley; the club huts were as over-crowded as the Engadine hotel, and some remarkable trayerses, including one of the Weisshorns, were accomplished But the clouds reformed, and those who fingered, hoping for a fine August, were disappointed. A fortningt's fine weather in these months was one climbers estimate of the sea son which he had endured from begin ] ming to end; and it might be difficult to find any one who could boast that his experience had been more fortunate. The climbing sason, from that point of view, was like the London season, or the season of any of the watering places.
 Concerning the accidents of theseason 1 it is, as has been said a little difficult to generalize until the official figures are presented but one generalization Is possible. The accidents to serious mountaineers, engaged upon serious ex- petitions, were relatively few, while the accidents which, being the direct result of ignorance or carelessness. ought really to be called by some other name, were comparatively numerous.
 The worst of all the real climbing ac- cidents of the season did not happen in the Alps, but on Scawfell Pinnacle. In part, this distribution of the casualties is, no doubt, to be attributed to the weather. There were fewer accidents than usual belonging to the former class, simply because there was less climbing. Tn part, however, it may be taken to represent tendency that is likely to become permanent.
 The early climbers were pioneers who had to learn the dangers of mountain eering by experience. The modern climber can start with a full knowledge of them acquired by the experience O. others He knows-or at any rate ht may hire guides who know-where ava. lanches habitually fall, at what hours of the day certain gullies are likely tt be raked by falling stones, under wha conditions snow slopes can be safely traversed. and many other things upor the knowledge of which the safety Q. the party depends
 Such an accident, for example, as hap. T started an avalanche on the Pig Nor terntsch, or to MT. Gossett, when he dit the same thing on the Haut de Cry would be most unlikely to occur to an. modern party with guide skilled il snow craft, transmitted from one gene ration of climbers to the next, canno fail to diminish the percentage of ca tastrophies among rnountaineers wh know their business.
 The danger for them begins when, ou of bravado. they knowingly take un warrantable risks, after the fashion o the late A. F. Munlmery, or the part, that fell from the Dent Blanche, in sucl tragic circumstances, a few seasons ago
 The accidents of the other class how ever, are more likely to increase thal to diminish in number as the years g or, if only because the increasing favil ities of continental travel bring so man energetic but inexperienced person withi nreach of the ugly and steep an dangerous places. They want to b climbers without serving their appren ticeship to the craft, they insist upo undertaking tasks beyond thei strength, or they simply walk careless fly in steep places. and so fall becaus lit has not occurred to them that it necessary to be careful.
 A typical case of the kind was that ( a girl who fell and killed herself thi summer on the Dent de Vaulion, abov the Lac de Jork Another is that of
 lady who fell in an easy place on tn Sent's. For long period one read ( two or three such cases every week
 and in almost every case, if one har
 pened to know the ground, one felt ths
 falling there was as absurdly unneces sary as falling out of the window (
 down the stairs. The number of sue
 accidents has certainly been one of tf
 salient features of the climbing seaso
 of 1903, and will probably also be one {
 the salient features of the season { 1904 and 1905, though they have lit
 enough to do with climbing in the stri' sense of the word
 Another feature of the season migl l perhaps be found in an increase of u practice of guideless climbing. This ' a branch of the sport originally intr' : duced by MT. GirdIesone, whose exper ences were not very encoura ging, sine