A MOUNTAINEER OF VISION

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22004, 30 January 1937, Page 15

A MOUNTAINEER OF VISION

THE CLASSIC “SCRAMBLES”

Scrambles Amongst the Alps. By Edward Whymper. Revised and Edited by H. E. G. Tyndale. Illustrated. John Murray. 393 pp. (10s 6d net.)

[Reviewed by JOHN PASCOE.]

Few men of the mountains have had the gift of being able to narrate their experiences with such vivid accuracy and attractive precision as Edward Whymper. His example fired others to overcome for themselves the varied obstacles to travel in the snowy hills. Whymper’s domination of the early history of.the Matterhorn has won him fame in many lands. An Austrian writer has said: “I was in the presence of Whymper’s Matterhorn.” Whymper’s account of the growth and climax of his domination have earned him the gratitude of three generations. For once that trite praise, “Classic,” becomes apposite, capital C and all. The “Scrambles” unfold a story of patient endeavour and triumph linked with disaster, in as grand a fashion as the dim divine myth of the Odyssey. Whymper was a roving climber with a sense of humour, an artist with a taste for proportion, and a writer with a zest for description. These qualities won him many disciples. Many quiet mountaineers found in Whymper’s writings the first sparks to kindle their enthusiasm. Ishak, the minstrel of “Hassan,” explained his fanatic determination in the lines:

“We travel not for trafficking alone; By hotter winds our fiery hearts arc-

fanned: For lust of knowing what should

not be known. . . but it is well to point out that a spark, no less than a devastating nor’-wester, can cause miles of timber to be swept with flame. At random I quote three of the acknowledged great, to give a glimpse of the part that Whymper played in their adolescence and to uphold my contention that Whymper’s influence on the subjugation qf mountains did not ebb with his age. G. I. Finch describes how he and his brother were “proud possessors of Whymper’s ‘Scrambles.’ ” Geoffrey Winthrop Young: “I came oneday upon Whymper’s ‘Scrambles.’ With the first reading (of many—for I knew it in the end almost by heart) the horizon shifted. Peaks and skies and great spaces of adventure rolled upward.” Julius Kugy: “Czornig also lent me my first High Alpine book, Whymper’s classic on the Matterhorn, which was like a firebrand to me.” The sixth edition of the “Scrambles” is strangely transformed with the pleasant sprinkling of modern photographs among the gallery of quaint old drawings from the author’s pen. Hitherto unpublished extracts from Whymper’s diary and copies of relevant correspondence throw new and valuable light on the obscurities of the earlier editions. The original humour is unaltered: “What a scare crow is Meynet! I made an accurate valuation of his clothes (by weight rf old rags) and found they were worth about Is 3d.” (In passing cne wonders whether Meynet would have been persona grata at our modern Hermitage.) It would be futile to attempt to give a precis of the “Scrambles.” The stage is in the Alps, the players vary from cretins to chamois, the plot is at the mercy of Nature, and the scenery compasses all the effects from silky dawn to grim blizzard. As Kugy exclaims in his “Alpine Pilgrimage ': “Do you want to read Alpine novels? Then read in Whymper’s famous book of peaks and glaciers how the hero conquers the Matterhorn by an unexampled boldness, tenacity, and endurance.”

To-day the Matterhorn is a vantage point that is gained by many unfit tourists with the help of burly guides and of ropes festooned on the historic ridges. The accident section of the “Alpine Journal,” London, is full of the tragic frivolities of inexperience and unwisdom on the Matterhorn slopes. Yet genuine mountaineers still find respite and joy in its sha'pely crest. L. V. Bryant made a name for New Zealand by accomplishing the first double traverse of the renowned peak. In 1931 the daring Munichers, Franz and Toni Schmid, forced their amazing piton ascent of the pitiless north Matterhorn face. Yet all who approach the Matterhorn are mindful of Whymper, the pioneer. His was the conquest, his the disaster. Of the eight who made the first ascent of the Matterhorn, four were killed in the descent. Through England raged the outcry against mountaineering. Said “The Times”: “It is magnificent. But is it life? Is it duty? Is it common sense?” The answers to those questions of 1864 have become changed in the world-wide growth of climbing hills for climbing’s sake.