The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1914-02-23
GROW DARING IN THE ALPS.
An Era Of Guideless Mount.tneer,na
Is Coming On.

(Boston Transcript.)
the general subject Of climbing
without a guide is one that is now at
tracing a great deal Of attention in
Europe. An English sporting maga-
Fine says: I'VE may date the devel-
oPment or modern mountaineering
from the birth OF guideless climbing.
o radical revolution than they
perhaps anticipated. the result Of their
movement being to raise the general
standard Of British mountaineering"
The assertion 10 made that one need
pe nothing more than q good walker
to be able to climb with guides to the
TOP Of any peak in the Alps. and it is
added that he who has to depend on
ms own SIKH. strength and nerve must
guided mountaineer merely needs to
follow his guides and he may do this
Tor years and not be able to leadd in a
simple climb or find his way to the
top of an easy snow peak.
There are arguments on both sides.
Certain Alpine clubs are such in truth.
and h criterion for the admission Of
a membe is whether m is willing to
trust himself on the rope with a can.
didate. But at the same time the let
ting Town Of the bars OF Alpinism by
the preaching Of guideless climbing
can only do harm. Man is prone to do
what he sees some one else do. With
the confidence in his own ability he
tramps bodily whore the angels Of the
profession tread with greatest eau
tion.a and tramps likely through to his
own destruction. A mans life may
be at stake at any moment. IL daring
work is to be undertaken. The guide
is a native Of the country. He has
passed his life in some profession like
that OF farming or herding that takes
him out Of doors. He learns the me-
THEOLOGICAL moods Of the country az he
does its geography.
The native learns. through constant
experience. the habits Of his cliffs and
glaciers. the meaning Of the crevass
snd the dehcacy Of method REQUIRED
for determining its location: he real
ICES the ir~responsibility Of snow
bridges. He knows Of avalanches, and
the accidents and incidents that move
them. He always has in his mind the
language Of the mountains and their
surroundings.
the euide In safe daring by the quality
Of mind that he can bring to bear.
Nevertheless the sacrifice Of life
through incompetent mountaineering
is large. There is In this country q
safe ana sane Fourth Of July move
ment. But the lives saved hardly ex-
coed the mortality Of the careless
Alpinist. A movement for safe and
san .Alpinism would effect nearly
equal results 20 far as mere mortality
is concerned. Yet the pendulum is
swinging away from safety in Alpin-
ism; It Is rather in the direction of
greater daring in proportion to intel
NEence and experience. and inevitab-
~ there will be greater losses. Self !
confidence effects most startling re-
suits. At above 1000 feet the noun
taineer has met men sauntering along
In q threatening position without utii-
izing the rope. It was not because
they did not know. Guideless Alpine
climbing may be approved when it is
undertaken by the few whose expe-
rience fits them to understand the
dangers Of walking over crevassed
glaciers and treacherous ice slopes.
but the achievements Of these men
must not be too highly accepted by the
general tramping public. for in such
practices there may be to them too
great q risk,