The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-07-30
D1sAsTERs ON MONT BLANC.
1ns Worst of Many Occurred In 1870
and Cost Eleven Lives.

ana Cost Eleven Lives.
In the long list of disasters which
darken the history of Mont Blanc the
worst, according to Edward Whymper.
Inc famous mountain climber, oc-
Cured to a party in 1870.
The amateur alpinists were two
americans, Mr.. Randall and Mr.. Nc
bean, and a Scotch minister, the Rev.
Y. McCorkindale. of Gourock. They
TOOK with them as guides or assist
ants no fewer than eight persons from
Cnamon1x, 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, 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
mad changed. The wind was some
thing frightful.
Even 10000 feet below it was seen
wh1rling the snow about so that the
members of the party were obliged
to throw themselves down to avoid
being carried away by it. Then the
summit became clouded and was not
seen again for eight days.
No one came back and on September
Z fourteen men from Chamonix start.
ed out to try to learn something. Bad
weather came on again and it 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 $50 below the top, with their
heads right way up, but with their
clothes somewhat torn, as If they had
slipped and fallen.
About three hundred feet higher up
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 q
little food.
Upon Mr.. Mclean a note book waa
found containing several entries in re-
spect to the occasion. All the five
corpses were hard frozen. They were
put into sacks and dragged down to
Chamonix. 1t 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 few years.
One Of the earliest avalanche acct
dents on Mont Blanc occurred in 1920,
when Dr. Hamel. a Russian, set out
on Aug. Is to go up Mont Blanc &C
companied by two Englishmen and
eight guides. They had assembled to
height of more than $4,000 feet.
with five guides In front, who were
cutting or making steps. when all at
once the snow above them gave way
and the entire party was carried down
thousand feet over the slopes w
which they had toiled.
Snow again broke away above and
more or less covered up the whole
party. Some of them struggled out
but three Of the leading guides were
hurled into a crevasse and buried un
der an immense mass of snow.
Ten years afterward, when conduct
ing another tourist up Mont Blanc by
the same route, one of the surviving
guides pointed to the crevasse and
said to his employer, They are there. u
He was wrong. At that time (1830)
the bodies were no doubt a consider.
able distance from the spot where the
accident occurred. for the dismember-
ed remains of the three unfortunates
commenced to reappear at the lower
end of the Glacier des Blossoms in 1861,
more than four miles away in direct
line from the place where they perish.
ed, and must have travelled down on
an average at the rate of 500 feet per
annum.