Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-28


! lk polar exploration. The eternal
! lM mystery of the pole exercises
| In E wonderful fascination over
LekI&ll the minds of the adventurous
| sons of men, a lure scarcely more CON-
pelling than that which makes men,
| and women also, to scale the snow
crested heights of the Alps, the Andes
and the Himalayas The duke of the
Abruzzi, the most distinguished mem
ber of the royal family of Italy, is
also one of the most distinguished
mountain climbers living and is even
now in Asia, bent upon reaching hith-
erto unattainable heights of certain
peaks of the Himalayan range. Much
secrecy has surrounded preparations
for his expedition, but it is believed he
and his party are headed for the Good
wen-Austen peak-"K2' it is sometimes
called. It's crest has never been
reached, although several attempts
have been made to scale its forbidding
sides.
The duke of the Abruzzi won fame as
a mountain climber when he conquered
st. Elias in Alaska in 1897, For forty
days the duke and his party were
above the snow line, toiling toward
Elias dome, and in constant danger
from storms, aValanches and those ter
rible creVesses, into the depths of
which the explorer often plunges, his
body to remain forever locked in the
arms of the eternal ice, unless, per-
chance, the ever-creeping glacier may
yield 1t up in years to come. But
Abruzzi conquered and won the APP
plause of the scientific world by his
achievement
Since climbing Elias the duke of the
Abruzzi has scaled and measured Ru-
wenzori, demonstrating tha1 it is not
Africas highest peak. He is now IN
the neighborhood of the loftiest noun
taius on the gIobc-"The Roof of the
World"-as the Himalayan range is
called Mt. Everest Gaurisankur OF
the old Biographies, the highest peak
of the range, is more than $4,000 feet
and GoodWen-Austen, or "k2' Whlch
Abruzzi will challenge, is 2S,27S feet
high. Kagenchunga is the most in
accessible peak of the HimalaYas, but
Goodwen- Austen, with an unbroken
mass of ice and snow extending down
| for more than three miles from lts
summit. has defied every attempt OF
man to scale it's forbidding sides. A
few years ago a party of Englishmen
spent eight weeks on the face of "K2'
Drawing constant dangers from storms,
avalanches and crevasses, While they
toiled in vain to reach its crest. Should
the duke of the Abruzzi reach the sum-
nit he will be acclaimed the worlds
SIGdltSl l4iOullleiAii NAti-FONA'
The history of mountain climbing IS
made up of stories of hardships perlls,
tragedies and frequently enough, of
unfinching courage in the face OF
| death itself A story illustrating all
these as we'll as a self-sacrifice so rare
as to revive the cynics tagging faith
in humankind is that of Edward and
Louis Morrison, who attempted some
years ago to go to the crest of Mount
Blanc. The brothers were connected
by a rope after the fashion of mountain
climbers Crossing an ice field, Louis
lost his footing and slipped over the
brink of a crevasse, where he hung
suspended, his brother bracing himself
to hold his own footing. Edward, VINO
was the older, was able to hold his
brother but was not able to draw him
back For several hours he put forth
superhuman efforts, while Louis prayed
him to cut the rope. But Edward de-
clared he would save his brother or
plunge to death with him in the yawn-
ing chasm. Finally, when his strength
was almost gone, Edward wrote in the
ice on which he was lying the story of
the tragedy, save the last chapter, and
then went over the brink with the
brother whom he would not desert to
save his own life. Climbers crossing
manuscript and learned the story of
the brothers devotion.
The tragedy which befell a large
number of gold seekers in Dyea pass,
Alaska, in the summer of 1897 is still
fresh in the memories of denizens of
the gold country of the arctic. The
route to the Klondike then led through
Dyea pass. Near the summit of the
pass is a glacier, from beneath which
runs a torrential river One night a
large number of men on their way to
the Klondike pitched their tents by the
river and beneath the glacier, while
further down the river were tents of
still other argonauts who would not
risk camping beneath the glaciers shell
ter The latter were awakened by a
roar a thousand times louder than any
they had ever heard and they knew
that the overhanging glacier had
broken, an avalanche was rushing
down upon the camp and doom had
sounded for every soul who had risked
such dangerous resting place. Days
were spent in digging away tons of ice
and rock in search of those buried be-
meath. No bodies were ever recovered.
In the summer of 1898 party of two
men and a woman going through Dyea
were overtaken by a snowstorm. They
burrowed into the snow and cut out a
hut, and then pulled in their dogs and
sled and supplies. They burned the
sled, all their surplus clothing and
finally killed their dogs for food and
fuel. They came out alive after the
storm passed, none the worse for their
experience.
Only a short time ago four French
tourists were killed and two Italian
climbers were fatally hurt while trying
to ascend Grand Dent, one of the most
the actual test. Like many other we'll