ALPINE HEROES

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11833, 14 January 1933, Page 9

ALPINE HEROES

SWISS GUIDES' FEATS

GLACIER. ADVENTURER

RISKS FOR THEI R CLIENTS

‘'While climbing in the Swiss Alps three tourists, without guides, fell over a precipice and were killed.”

To the average reader grim announcements such as this, which appear in I lie Press wilh mournful frequency during the climbing season, mean Id tie. But to those who have experienced the Mo ngers of Hie high Alps they signify a. whole world of suffering, heroic effort, and .sometimes deliberate sacrifice of life (writes If. Cludlinor .lames in the “Daily Mail”). One of the finest bodies •of men in the world is the corps of Swiss Alpine guides’. Daily contact with danger appears to have made them incapable of fear, and they think no more of risking their lives for a “client’’ than the ordinary man does of saving a drowning kitten. “My worst experience.” said one modest hero, “was on the Four Donkeys Ridge." on the sinister Dent Blanche. T was conducting an Englishman along the ridgo when we were overtaken by a terrible blizzard. In semi-darkness we struggled on for six hours, only to find that we could neither go on nor turn back, all Ihc landmarks being hidden.

“Eventually we struck a knife-like edge of snow and got astride it net though on horseback. On both sides was a sheer drop of 6000 feet. We l wore afraid to cut slops because on oh blow with the axe started small avalanches. Lightning played around the ridge and several times we were hnirslunned by i?}iocks. “Tt began to snow, and my companion was shivering so badly (bat 1 bad to make him accept my jumper. Soon wo were completely buried under the snow. Dawn came at last, arid when more dead than alive v.'c crawled out of our refuge we found wo were only a few hundred feet away from Urn glacier, and salary!”

UNLUCKY DAY. One of. the most nerve-shattering adventures recorded in Alpine annals befell a leading Zermatt guide on the Matterhorn. He was engaged by a German woman to make the ascent on IJth July in a recent year, and although be did not altogether like the date, .she insisted on starting.

.As they loft the village, a half-wit rushed out of a shod and, making 1 he sign of- the cross, mumbled a warning to thorn. The incident made a deep impression on the woman .but they pushed on, arriving safely at the summit early next- day. On the way down they had just reached the ‘ishouldoiy where AYhymper's ill-fated party (which started its conquest of the Matterhorn on 13th July, lßfid) came to grief, when the guide saw a. big stone falling. He shouted to his companion. to crouch down, but she was a fraction too late, and it struck her full in the face. She uttered one terrible cry. and disappeared over the brink. “The strain was terrific,” said the guide, relating the story to me. “There was scarcely and foothold, but after a time I managed to wind tjie rope round a rock and get down to her. She was hanging head downwards over the glacier, a sheer drop of -1000 feet. I could not puli her up, so I drew her on to life ledge and sat down to wait for the end, which I thought was near. An hour later, however, her lips moved. She was trying to speak to me. “1 shouted with all my might, and eventually was answered by a. party with guides lower down the mountain. “At all times the Matterhorn at this spot is perilous, but one of the guides somehow managed to get the woman over his shoulders and carry her down, the precipitous ridge to the Solvav Hut. Usually it takes four hours from the but to the Belvedere, but the guide did if in the amazing time of twenty minutes, and returned at once with a doctor who happened to be on the spot. My 'client* was nine months in hospital, but on Idth duly, exactly a year after the accident, I again accompanied her up tlio Matterhorn !’ J

DOWN A CEEVASSE. Few men have looked death so close in the face and lived io tell the story ns the guide who fell down a steep crevasse while crossing au unfrequented glacier alone. He was not badly hurt, and after the first shock was over he sat down to think,, things out. To keep himself warm lie ate all G;e provisions in his rucksack. Time after time ho tried to cut steps, but lbe wails of the crevasse were too far apart for him to get a foothold. Every now and then, lie slipped lower down the gulf. He made one last despairing attempt to cut steps, then gave it up to wait for the end. He fell asleep and many boons must have elapsed before lie wrs awakened by excited cries from above. He shouted wildly, and a. face peered into th ( j darkness. A rope was lowered, and before slipping the noose around his body be reverently kissel it. • The noxt> thing he remembered was lying on the snow in the sunshine. By an extraordinary piece of luck two guides happened to he crossing the glacier that day and had noticed his ice-axe lying on the brink of the crevasse.

(Continued at foot of next column)

Continued from previous column!

The amazing stoicism of a climber on. the Final Rothorn shows to what lengths human endurance can go. Two Viennese and a Swiss were crossing a narrow ridge when the first man on the rope slipped, dragging the second after him. As the latter fell his leg became caught between two rocks and was smashed in several places. Ho remained wedged there, hearing on Ids broken log the full weight of his dead companion. who was suspended in space. Powerless to help, the third man wound his end of the rope around a rock and started off alone to get help at the Afoiintefc. Hut. Jt was only late next, evening that a search-party discovered the injured man and released him. from his terrible position. He did not know that his companion was dead. BROTHER G ITPvKS. .In conclusion. 1 should like to pay homage to the two brothers, guides of Zermatt, who led two inexperienced Englishmen safely through the Valley of the Shallow,-risking their own lives a score of times in the undertaking. .1. had accepted the offer of a .London. clergyman to share hiis guides for a (rip on an “easy''' glacier above Zermatt. The guides regarded the ex-

cursion more as a promenade than a climb, hut we had nob been long on the glacier before they called a halt, and began to confer together in t licit native dialect. There liad been a slight snowfall overnight, just sufficient to cover the crevasses and turn what was ordinarily a perfectly sate excursion into a perilous adventure. AYe realised with dismay the unspoken anxiety of the guides wlieu they divided the ropes, leaving ns .linked together in twos. They would vouchsafe no explanation, except that the ‘‘going’-’ would be better tints. In reality, however, it meant that if an accident did occur it wore better two should die titan lour. 'rime after time the guides leapt across crevasses many feet wide, and, clinging desperately to the iev walls, It ticked out footholds for ns to alight on. Gripping the ice with their lacerated fingers they then pulled us on to safe footing. One little slip and all would have been over. For more than two hours the terrible nightmare lasted, and when at last they dragged rather than led us to the. safety of the “morraine” the only comment- of the lender was: “Perhaps the gentlemen would like some cold tea!’’