On early starts
We started in the usual frame of mind—that is to say, everybody was exceedingly facetious for about three minutes. In about ten minutes one of the party, who would slake his thirst unduly at a crystal spring near the bivouac the previous evening, found that his boot lace was untied; circumstances which do not seem associated at first sight, but are not, nevertheless, infrequently observed. So again have I often remarked that a good dinner overnight develops in an astonishing manner admiration for [pg 107]distant views when ascending on the subsequent day. Within a quarter of an hour the amateurs of the party ceased to indulge in conversation, their remarks dying away into a species of pained silence similar to that which is induced in youthful voluptuaries by the premature smoking of clay pipes. The guides, however, seldom if ever desisted from dialogue, and never for the purpose of listening to each other’s remarks. Still, the respiratory process is governed by the same conditions in the case of guides as in other mortals, and though they would scorn to stoop to the boot-lace subterfuge, and feel that a sudden admiration for scenery would deceive no one, they yet found it necessary before long to distribute their burdens more equally; a process achieved by halting, untying several strings, taking out several parcels and replacing them in the same positions. By these various methods we acquired what athletes call “second wind” and stepped out more strongly. We crossed a moraine of the usual inconsistency—however, the subject of loose moraines has been, I fancy, touched upon by other writers. The Baltschieder Glacier sweeps at a right angle round a mountain christened, not very originally, the Breithorn. This particular member of that somewhat numerous family blocks up the head of the Baltschieder Thal. We skirted the north base of the Breithorn, passing between it and the Jägihorn, and arriving at the top of a [pg 108]steep little slope came in full view of the eastern slopes of our objective peak. At this point Maurer gave vent to a dismal wail of anguish as it suddenly occurred to him that he had left the bottle of seltzer water down below. With some difficulty did we persuade him that it was not necessary to return for it, although the idea of repose was not wholly distasteful, but we felt that we had probably all our work cut out for us in one sense, and that the days were none too long for such an expedition as the one we had in hand. Two distinct lines of attack appeared to offer themselves. One route, more to our right, led upwards by a gentle curved ridge, chiefly of snow, connecting the Baltschieder Joch with the northern arête of the mountain. In 1866 Messrs. D. W. Freshfield and C. C. Tucker, as we learnt subsequently, attained a high point by this way and were only prevented from accomplishing the actual ascent by bad weather, though they did enough to prove the practicability of the route. However, this way, which appeared the easier of the two, was evidently the longer from our position. The other route had the advantage of lying straight in front of us. Its attraction consisted of a broad long gully of snow enclosed between two ridges of rock. By the dim morning light the snow appeared easy enough and was evidently in suitable condition: howbeit, long snow couloirs, at the summit of which rocks overhang, are not usually to be recommended [pg 109]when the mountain itself is composed of friable material. Now it would be difficult to find in the whole of the Alps a mountain more disposed to cast stones at its assailants than the Bietschhorn, a fact of which we were fully aware. Every ascent of this disintegrating peak so rearranges the rocks that the next comers would not be wholly without justification if they pleaded that the details of their ascent were to a great extent new. Still, mountaineers up to the present have not been quite reduced to such a far-fetched claim to novelty, although in these latter days they have at times come perilously near it. Judging by the direction of the strata, we felt certain that the rock ridges must be practicable, and the problem in mountaineering set before us consisted in finding out how we might best ascend without subjecting ourselves to the inconveniences experienced by some of the early martyrs.
The rocks of the Bietschhorn
An early breakfast put fresh strength into us. It is a common mistake of mountaineers not to breakfast early enough and not to breakfast often enough. If it be desired to achieve a long expedition when there is not likely to be too much spare time, the wise man will eat something at least every two hours up to about 10 o’clock in the morning, supposing, for instance, he started about 2 A.M. It is astonishing to notice how the full man gains upon the empty one on fatiguing snow slopes. We strode [pg 110]rapidly across the basin of snow called the Jägifirn and arrived at the foot of the gully. But now we could see that our suspicions were more than verified: ugly-looking marks in the snow above indicated falling stones, and the snow itself was obviously in a condition prone to avalanches. This danger must always be present in couloirs to a greater or less extent in such seasons as the one we were experiencing. There had been sufficient power of sun to convert the contents of the gully into what would have been, in fine weather, a glistening ice slope. But much fresh snow had fallen recently. It but rarely can happen, when snow has fallen late in the season or during the hot months, that the new and the old layers can become properly amalgamated. If, therefore, there is too great a thickness of fresh snow to allow of steps being cut through this into the ice beneath, such couloirs are unsafe. The mark of a single avalanche due to the sliding off of the fresh snow on the ice beneath—a mark easily enough recognised—would deter any save an unwise person or a novice from attempting such a line of ascent. The marvellous hereditary instinct so often attributed to guides in judging of this condition really reduces itself to a matter of very simple observation and attention, and one within the reach of anybody. But travellers in the Alps too often appear to treat their reasoning faculties like they do their tall hats, and leave them at home. The question then [pg 111]was, Were the rocks right or left of this snow gully practicable? We all agreed that they were, and proceeded at once to test the accuracy of our opinion.
Avalanches on the Bietschhorn
We crossed the bergschrund—that godsend to writers on mountaineering in search of material to act as padding—and without dwelling on its insecure bridge longer than we need now dwell on the subject made swiftly for some rocks on the left. Scarcely had we gained them when a rush of snow and ice, of no great dimensions, but still large enough to be formidable, obliterated all the tracks we had just made. This settled the point at once, and we felt that by the rocks alone would it be proper to force the ascent. While on the ridge we were safe enough, and had the advantage as we clambered up of a most commanding position from whence we could view the frequent avalanches that swept by. The rain of the previous night, though it had only lasted for an hour or two, had evidently had a great effect on the state of the snow, and the avalanches seemed to pour down almost incessantly: probably some forty or fifty swept by us while we climbed by the side of the gully, and our situation gave rise to that feeling of somewhat pained security which is experienced when standing on a railway platform as an express train dashes by; we certainly felt that some of the downfalls would have reduced our party to a pulp quite as easily and with as much unconcern as the train itself. The guides, [pg 112]who do not perhaps tax their memories very severely for a parallel on such an occasion, asserted, as they generally do, that they had never seen anything like it in the whole course of their lives. They then fell to whistling, laughed very gaily, and borrowed tobacco from each other.
A dramatic situation
Gradually our difficulties became more pronounced, and conversation on indifferent topics was discarded, the remarks being confined to brief exclamations such as “Keep it tight!” “Don’t touch that one!” “Hold on now!” “You’re treading on my fingers!” “The point of your axe is sticking into my stomach!” and similar ejaculations. Once in a way we ascended for a few feet by the snow, though never quite losing touch of the rocks, and sank waist deep in the soft compound filling up the gully. Then we went back to the rotten rocks for a brief spell, well content to be more out of the reach of chance fragments of ice falling down the shoot. It is wonderful to note how quickly time passes in an exciting climb of this nature; but our progress was actually rather rapid, so fast indeed that we did not fully realise at one period that we were getting into difficulties and that we had without doubt strayed, Christian-like, from the narrow path which was evidently the right one. Throughout the day we were conscious that the climb was too long to be completed if we made any serious mistake involving the retracing of steps. Quite suddenly, our [pg 113]situation became critical: a hurried glance up and down along the line revealed the fact that each member of the party had to do all he knew to preserve his position. The attitudes were ungainly enough to suggest instantaneous photographs at an ill-selected movement of four individuals dancing a “can-can.” Maurer was engaged apparently in an extremely close and minute inspection of the toe of his right boot. Another member of the party was giving a practical illustration of the fact that he could, by extreme extension of his arms, stretch more than his own height, while a third was endeavouring to find out why the power of co-ordinating his muscular movements was suddenly lost to him, and why he could not persuade his left leg to join his right. For a few moments Jaun, who was leading, hung on by his finger-tips and the issue of the expedition hung in the balance. But our leader, by dint of some complicated sprawls, transferred himself over a passage of rock on which we had no earthly reason to be, and assisted the rest of the party to regain a more promising line of ascent. For those few minutes the situation was dramatic enough, and the thought crossed my mind that the curtain might not improbably descend on it; a solution of the difficulty which commends itself to the playwright when he has involved his dramatis personæ in difficulties, but which is not without its objections to the climber. On the whole the rocks on [pg 114]this face of the mountain are much more difficult than on the other, and, writing now after the lapse of some years, I am disposed to think that these are perhaps the most difficult crags of any that I have ever met with to climb properly, that is with a minimum of risk to one’s self and to one’s companions; as a good proof of this I may say that the ascent would probably have appeared fairly easy to a novice and that it required some little Alpine experience to realise their real difficulty and their treacherous nature. There was scarcely time to test adequately all hand and foothold, and examination of rocks by what surgeons term palpation is a sine quâ non in rock climbing. Undoubtedly the mountain was not in the best possible order. We may possibly have rearranged the rocks in our line of ascent in a more convenient manner for those who follow. Certainly we may fairly say that in our actual line of ascent we left no stone unturned to ensure success.
The united party nearly fall out
Close below the ridge—within perhaps ten feet of it, for if I remember aright our leader had actually reached the crest—came the climax to what was perhaps rather a perilous climb. The first and second on the rope had met in their upward passage a huge cube of rock whose security they had carefully tested, and to surmount which it was necessary to stretch to the fullest extent in order to gain a respectable hold for the hands. We were all four in a direct line [pg 115]one below the other, and the two last on the rope were placed perforce directly beneath the treacherous crag. By an extension movement which conveyed some notion of the sensation experienced by those on the rack, I had reached a handhold pronounced to be of a passable nature by those above. By this manœuvre I succeeded in getting my feet exactly to a place on which the others, who were much heavier than I, had stood in security; without rhyme or reason the block of stone, which was about the size of a grand pianoforte, suddenly broke away from under me; a huge gap seemed cloven out in the mountain side, and Maurer, below, had only just time to spring aside, enveloped in a cloud of dust, and to throw himself flat against the rock, while the rope was strained to the utmost. Fortunately the handhold above was sound and I was able to hold on with feet dangling in the air, searching in vain for some projection on which to rest. Those above were too insecure to give any efficient help, and in fact possibly viewed my struggles, inasmuch as they were not fully aware at first of what had happened, with as much equanimity as a person inside a boat contemplates the gymnastic performances of a bather trying to climb over the edge. As the cloud of dust cleared off, however, and Maurer’s face gradually beamed through it like the sun in a fog, for the excitement had made him the colour of a cornet player giving vent to a high note, they [pg 116]began to realise that something abnormal had happened, while the distant thundering reverberations of the falling mass assured them that it was no ordinary slip. Meanwhile Maurer planted his axe so as to give me some foothold, and with a push from below and a pull from above, fortunately simultaneous, I succeeded in planting my feet where my hands were, and subsequently undoubling found that we were within a few feet of the ridge, that the panorama beyond was undoubtedly magnificent, but was thrown out in strong relief by deep blue-black thunder-clouds advancing towards us.