The Echo register. (Echo, Umatilla County, Or.) 190?-1909, 1909-07-23
DISASTERS ON MONT BLANC.
rhe Worst of Many Occurred I'm 1870
.ud Gasf Eleven Lives.

fhe Worst nf hAny occurFet ."
and Cost Eleven Lives.
In the long list OF disasters which
darken the history OF Mont Blanc the
worst. according to Edward Whymper
the famous mountain climber. oc'
CURED to a party in 1870.
The amateur alpinlsts were two
Americans. Mr.. Randall and Mr.. Nc
Bean. and a Scotch minister, the Rev.
q. McCorkindale. OF Gourock. They
took with them as guides or assist
ants no fewer than eight persons from
Chamonix. a quite sufficient number
As is usual. they passed the night In
the Inn upon the rocks which are
called the Grands Mulets.
On the next day. writes Prof. Whym
per in the Strand. a number OF per
sons below watched their progress
through telescopes. They were seen
to arrive on the summit and to begin
the descent. By that time the weather
had changed The wind was some
thing frightful.
Even 10000 feet below It was seen
whirlng the snow about so that the
members OF the party were obliged
to throw themselves down TO avoid
being carried away by 1t. Then the
summit became clouded and was not
seen again for eight days.
No one came back and on September
fourteen men from Chamonix start
ed out to try TO learn something Bad
weather came on again and 1t was not
until the 18th that the fate OF the
party was ascertained. When the
rescue party got up they found Mr..
McCorkindale and two of the porters
about 100 below the top. with their
heads right way up. but with their
clothes somewhat torn. as II they had
slipped and fallen.
About three hundred feet higher ur
they came upon Mr. Mclean and an
other porter sitting down, the former
with his head leaning on one hand
and the elbow on knapsack. ropes
coiled up. batons. axes and knapsacks
round about them still containing a
little food.
Upon Mr. Mclean n note book was
found containing several entries in re
spect TO the occasion. All the five
corpses we're hard frozen. They were
put into sacks and dragged down tc
Chamonix II took three days TO trans
port them. The bodies of the six
others have not yet been recovered
but they will probably come to light
in the course OF a few years.
One OF the earliest avalanche acci
dents on Mont Blanc occurred In 1920
when DR.. Hamel, Russian set out
on Aug. Is to go up Mont Blanc &C
companled by TWO Englishmen ant
eight guides. They had ascended L
a height OF more than $4,000 feet
with five guides In front. who were
cutting or making steps. when all a
once the snow above them gave wa,
and the entire party was carried dowI
thousand feet over the slopes M
which they had toiled.
Snow again broke away above and
more or less covered up the who'll
party Some Of them struggled out
but three OF the leading guides wer
hurled into a cTeyasse and buried un
der an immense mass OF snow.
Ten years afterward. when conduct
ing another tourist up Mont Blanc b.
the same route. one of the suryiyin
guides pointed to the crevasse an
said TO his employer They are there.
lie was wrong. At that time tls30
the bodies were no doubt n consider
able distance from the spot where tn
accident occurred. for the dismember
ed remains Of the three unfortunate
commenced 10 reappear at the lowe
end OF the Glacier des Blossoms In 1856
more than four miles away In n dire,
line from the place where they perisl
ed. and must have Travelled down O
an average at the rate of 500 feet pc
annum.