Pope Pius-Mountaineer

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 256, 13 October 1923, Page 13

Pope Pius-Mountaineer

Pontiff Writes of Alpine Adventures Frozen Night on Wind-Swept Peaks

The fine, studious countenance of Pope Pius XI. little suggests the adventurous mountaineer, who has braved the perils of the avalanche, the severed rope, and sliding rock, but, reading between the lines of his very modest book, there is to be found a story of achievement which holds a thrilling interest, writes Nazariene Daan Kannibele to an American exchange. It was he who forced a new passage across the perilous Monte Rosa.

It seems a far cry from the repose of the Vatican to the storm-embraced, wind-swept peaks of the mighty Alps, yet the present occupant of the Papal Chair—Abate Achille Ratti, Pius Xl.— has fought the giant mountains, conquered almost inaccessible peaks, and proved himself a hero among the members of the various Alpine Clubs. A volume from his pen, “Climbs on Alpine Peaks,” presents a story of endurance, energy, athletic prowess, and adventure that holds one in thrall. Yet what strikes one in reading the fascinating pkges of the narrative is the unostentatious, modest way in which it is presented. It is in a foreward by Mr. Douglas Freshfield that an exploit which the Pope vaguely mentions, but which surely is worthy of record, is recalled. It tells how he saved a guide from death. His companion in the climb related the circumstances long afterwards. Let me quote the words he nsed:—

“On the glacier (of the Grand Paradis, the highest peak wholly in Italy) our guide fell into a crevasse, and would have perished had it not been for the presence of mind, skill, and strength with which Ratti held the rope, and little by little succeeded in drawing him back to safety.”

Daring Ascent. Not a word of this appears in the Pope’s volume, nor is there a line which makes him appear to be a hero. It is in the same foreword that, as “an example of Ratti’s energy and endurance,” the fact is stated that “few more, daring feats are recorded than the ascent of the precipitous face of Monte Rosa, above Macugnaga, which was for years one of the unsolved problems of the Alps.” It was accomplished at last, but not by Italians, and those who succeeded declared that “owing to the unavoidable risk incurred from avalanches and falling stones the expedition ought to be abandoned.” But Mgr. Ratti thought otherwise. He was intensely patriotic and he believed that “this spectacular feat” should be repeated by his own countrymen. He made a prolonged study of the mountain, because he was anxious that no life should be uselessly endangered. And in this way he “convinced himself that there wore brief periods when loose stones were at rest, and avalanches ceased from falling, and that by taking advantage of one of these intervals the climb might he attempted without undue risk.”

The climb was arduous to the last degree. Starting from a hut at the height of 10,500 feet, the climbers took 18 hours to conquer the precipices, sheer and forbidding, of the eastern face.

' Later the Pope and his companions forced a passage which had never before been made, and there followed two days and a night when, amidst a frozen cold, and without wraps or shelter, Mgr. Ratti and his companions slept out, and climbed at a height that would have exhausted any but the most highly-trained and athletic men. One of the party—a professor—had liis hands frost-bitten, through having to handle the rocks. He had lost his ice-axe, which went clattering down an unfathomable slope. Terrible Accident. None of the books written by th.' Pope exceed this in popular interest. And it is an amazing and little known fact that more than 330 books came from this prolific pen. Some of them are tracts, but many are of a weightier character.

That ascent of Monte Rosa (15,212 feet) by Mgr. Ratti is one of the glorious epics of mountaineering. The Italian side, from which he started, is almost inaccessible. There are wide crevasses, continually threatening avalanches, and terrifying precipices. It was on August Bth*. that Marinelli was the victim of an avalanche in the great gully which still bears his name. And it was by this route that Mgr. Ratti had to make his ascent. Referring to it, he quotes a well-known Alpinist:— “From the foot of the wall, right up the middle of the steep ice slope, two ridges run up towards the summits . . . The traverse of the gully is particularly feared on account of avalanches, which follow one another at short intervals throughout the day.” But these considerations did not deter the intrepid mountaineer, who, by the way, was a personal friend of the late C. E. Matthews, one of the bravest climbers who ever attempted

W&iafeK the mighty Alps. .And he has gi ven us a delightful description of a glimpse of Monte Rosa: It was a spectacle of incomparable I'eautv. Around us the fresh green of the meadows and the woods: above us the canopy of heaven tinged with the most beautiful blue that was ever seen, of a truly crystalline purity and transparency, and in front towered the Alpine giant with the immense extent of its snow and ice. with the mighty crown of its ten peaks, snarkling and flaming in the rays of the rising run.” The impulse which led him to conquer the unassailable was patriotic in its essence: “It is a longing on the part of the mountaineea- to know his beloved land, even to the utmost boundaries, and its highest summits; the feeling of spiritual energy, which inspires him to the overcoming of lifeless matter. And the summit attained, the glance can sweep the world which lies at the mountaineer’s feet. AV hat a tribute Monsignor Ratti pays to Gadin. How he cuts the steps in the solid ice, persevering nearly through the day. And so they struggled upwards, over apparently unclimable rocks, across snow fields, and ' by the chimney which had been the scene of many accidents. The snow was soft, and there was the constant peril of avalanche and concealed crevasse. At length they reached the peak of their endeavour:—.

“By God’s good will we at last laid hands on the rock,, and we felt like the shipwrecked mariner of whom .Dante’s lines give a description so true that it is unnecessary to quote them.’’ I’ rom below the adventurers were watched through telescopes, and a sudden halt in the expedition made them fear that all was not well. But again the party moved on. The sun was steadily sinking, and there was not a moment to lose.

Then came the hazardous descent in the failing light. This was accomplished without any accident, though it was quite dark when the party reached the earth level again. There were other peaks equally difficult which Monsignor Ratti ascended. Among them was the Matterne .>« first climbed in 1864 by Why mper—when several lives were lost—and also that monarch of mountains, Mont Blanc. Arctic Aspect. Ho climbed the Matterhorn direct from Zermatt, a week after his exhausting conquest of Monte Rosa—an amazing proof of his endurance. As seen from Zarmatt part of their routes look inaccessible, but it is not quite so.

The descent was particularly hazardous since the snow felt the cold towards evening and was ’ getting coated with a kind of varnish of slippery ice. “Only one of us moved at a time in the most difficult places. When he thought I was firmly placed, Gadin merely told me to hold the rope taut, and 1 could see him helow me. upright on the precipice, and swinging his axe with a skill and accuracy which did not lack an element of grace.” But if Gadin had slipped ! The intrepid party, however, “had still to avenge ourselves for our failure on Mont Blanc two years before.” and the priestly mountaineer made, an ascent of the highest peak of the Alps by what is known as the Rocher route.

Referring to the famous vallot hut, the writer says: “When I saw those workmen labouring in their hairy caps, their dark spectacles, their thick gloves, and their enormous heavy boots amid that immense theatre of snow and ice I really thought 1 was (reading an illustrated description of a polar expedition.” This collection of papers by the exlibrarian of the Vatican, who now wears the triple crown, is of immense interest to other than Alpinists, and can be read apart from its valuable descriptions of mountain routes for the thrilling narrative of courage and fortitude and for the enjoyment of the cultured author’s sensitiveness of beauty.