Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-31

by and disappeared and the crash of the rocks
which had started--as they fell onto the
glacier told how narrow had been my escape
from utter destruction AS it was, fell nearly
200 feet in seven or eight bounds Ten feet
more would have taken me in one gigantic leap
of 800 feet onto the glacier below
THE situation was sufficiently serious. The
rocks could not be let go for a moment, and
the blood was spirting out of more than 20
cuts. The more serious ones were in the head
and I vainly tried to close them with one hand,
whilst holding on with the other. It
less; the blood jerked out in binding jets at
each pulsation. At last, in a moment of in
spiration, I kicked out a big lump of snow,
and stuck it as plaster on my head. The
idea was happy one, and the flow of blood
diminished. Then scrambling up, I got not
moment too soon, to a place of safety, and
tainted away"
He returned to consciousness as the sun was
setting. Fortunately the 5000 feet of descent
that remained was comparatively easy.
The man was Edward Whymper and the
mountain was the Matterhorn. Looking back
across the sixty-odd years that have passed
since that Summer afternoon, the long strug-
gle between these two antagonists takes on the
aspect of q far-off battle between giants of
mythical age. The Matterhorn was guarded
by the fates. Whymper finally climbed to its
summit But the day that he did it was one
whose memory throughout his life brought
him the keenest pangs of sorrow that man
can feel.
EDWARD WHYMPER was an English artist
He had waited until his late thirties to dis
cover that climbing was to be the great passion
of his life. Up to 1860 he had not even seen
q real mountain
Very early in his mountain career, Whym-
per was drawn to Matterhorn. Here was a
frst-class problem to be solved and he decided
that he was the man to solve it, Like others
he concentrated his attention at first on the
Italian side.
Between 1861 and 1865 Whymper made
seven organized attempts to reach the summit
With him on each climb were two or three
guides the best obtainable Jean Antoine Car
rel was usually the first on the rope.
regular routine was followed on steep
rock While the rest aof the party remained
clinging tightly TO their handholds and foot
holds, the leader would work his way up, some
times by footholds alone sometimes by pulling
up hand over hand while the ron-shod boots
struggled to get grip on the smallest irregu-
larihes OF the rock surface. When he had
assembled to the limit of rope that separated
him from the second man, the latter would re-
peat the process the leader, meanwhile, anchor
ing himself as firmly he could. And SO the
process was repeated until all had made the
distance, then up again went the leader. Often
slip by one would have pulled the whole party
down to destruction.
On each ascent it was necessary to spend
a night on the mountain. This meant carving
a tent AS there were no lodges broad enough
to support tent in safety they had to build
up artificial platforms of loose stones On this
precarious flooring they lay huddled together
under their canvas. Sometimes they were bat
tered all night by storms that ragged around
the peak. The wind blew hard as to seem
likely to wrench the tent from its anchorage
and hurl it, with its occupants, 5000 feet down
to the glacier below.
BY 1865 Whymper began to examine routes
other than those on the Italian side He knew
that other climbers had declared the eastern
face to be utterly impossible. Walking around
10 Zurmatt, he surveyed It, Yes, it did look