Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-08-03
WAS GREAT ALP|N|ST
Exploits of Edward Whymper
in Mountain Climbing.
MANY DARING ASCENTS
Sent to Switzerland to Make Alpine
Sketches-Converted to
Mountaineering.
r. F. Young. in Popular Science

September 16, 1911 there died suddenly
at Chamonix. France, a man who made
a most unusual figure in his specially
Most of us must have thought of Edward
Whymper as long since dead and gone
to the limbo Of tdavelers. for he did his
work a generation ago. reached his fame
and enjoyed it, and had lately been for
gotten. in the general commercialization
of sports that has taken place in the last
two decades.
Any one who has sojourned in the AL
pine region for any length of time has
been struck with the enormous number
OF tourists and sportsmen visiting this
chief playground of the nations. and with
the extraordinary perfection of the sys-
tenn Of taking care of them and meeting
their every whim. There are few CEN
tiers, even the small ones, without their
Club Alpin. 1t was not SO when Whym-
per went to the Alps on a professional
errand in 1860 and began his career as
a climber.
BY neither heredity nor environment
did Whymper come by his mountaineer-
ing. Born in London. April %, 1910. he
was the son of an artist and engraver on
wood, who gave him a good education at
Clarendon House School and by private
tutor and then trained him carefully and
with excellent results in his own profess
sion. BY 1860 young Whymper had be-
come an artist of sufficient ability to be
sent to Switzerland by a London pub
Usher to make some sketches of the
great Alpine peaks. and more particular
ly to prepare some illustrations which
were intended to celebrate the triumph
of an English party. headed by Prof.
Bonney. who intended to make the as
Of
Whymper states that at this time he had
only a literary acquaintance with noun
taineering, and had not even seen, much
less set foot upon, mountain. Inc
party of distinguished Englishmen failed
in their attempt to conquer this virgin
mountain. A very agreeable Frenchman,
who accompanied the party, was charm
ed with Whmyper, and begged him to re-
turn with him to the assault. In lod1
he did so, and with his friend made the
first ascent of Mont Pelvoux: thus was
he infected with the love of high places!
In 1861 Edward Whymper found in the
Alps none of the modern machinery OF
mountaineering; there were no railroads
to the top of Jungfrau: no ratings on
the Matterhorn and no hotels on the Mer
de Glaze; travel was slow, mostly on
foot, or by the unreliable diligence,
which took a traveller only to the foot
of the lower valleys. Although DE
SausSure. the Swiss pioneer, had done
1887, he had had SO few successors thai
he seemed almost a contemporary. Pro-
fessional guides were few. not especially
experienced or adventurous when new
territory was contemplated, so that we
must not be astonished to find that
Whymper Tyndall Forbes, Kennedy. Sir
Alfred Wills Sir Leslie Stephen some
times dispensed with guides or used
them more as pOrterS or servants than
as advisers.
It was the heroic age of Alpinism. The
vast flood of development and facilita-
tion-vul sariZation, let us say-did not
come until the seventies or eighties. AL
most every ascent was a geographical
achievement, accomplished by the bit
terest toll. The early sixties were a
school in which were educated some OF
the great climbers and explorers of the
nineteenth century.
Having learned his first lesson on the
Pelvoux, Whymper dallied for no further
lessons, but attacked the Matterhorn at
once, in his vacation of 1861. The Mat
terhorn was then the last great Alpine
peak that remained unScaled; less on
account of the difficulty of the feat than
by the doubt inspired by the invincible
appearance of the mountain. 1t was re-
garded with terror by the climbers and
with affrighted superstition by the ma
tives Even today it is dreadfully i'm
pressive to the casual tourist: it never
seems commonplace and stands almost
alone amoung mountains. 1t still has no
rivals in the Alps for difficulty, and but
few in the world.
Today it is curious to read of Whym-
per's fruitless searchings here and there
to find guides. for the Matterhorn. There
was apparently only one man in the
Swiss valleys who believed that the
mountain could be ascended. and that
was Jean-Antoine Carrel, destined later
to become the most famous of guides.
With him Whymper made his first at
tack upon the peak, in August, 1861. One
other guide, J.-J. Carrel. accompanied
them. They failed. but learned valuable
lessons. Similar attempts We're made In
1862 and 1856; without success, but all the
time Whymper was making marvellous
progress as a scientific mountaineer.
Whymper's impotence with his guides
led him in 1862 to make another attempt
on the mountain alone. Many of us read
in our first readers the story of his SOL
itary scramble on the Col du Lion, termi-
mating in a terrific fall down an ice slope.
Here. he was saved only by hair from
a fall onto the Glacier du Lion, a
Thousand feet below. This early expert
ence seems to have been a valuable one
for him.
Highest of French Alps.