XXI
At the Grimsel we received and sent off mail, including Belle Soeur’s and my knapsacks, that we might be in the lightest possible marching order. We also invested in provisions,—ground coffee, cheese, bread, chocolate and hard-boiled eggs. And Frater, at Biner’s suggestion, humbled his pride so far as to purchase an alpenstock. Also we indulged in an excellent lunch.
The weather had been beautiful all the morning, as it had been the day before, but it did not look so well after luncheon. The sky was graying, and there was a suggestion in the air of approaching snow. However, it was not definitely bad and might be all right by morning, so Biner thought there was no reason for postponing our start.
The method of crossing the Strahlegg is to leave the Grimsel in the afternoon and spend the night at the Dollfus Pavilion, one of the Alpine Club refuge huts, and get a very early start for the long day’s trip to Grindelwald. There is another club hut, the Schwarzegg, on the Grindelwald side of the pass, where the second night can be spent if one is belated—a most fortunate circumstance for us as it turned out.
Biner broke to us the news that there was another party besides ourselves of three “gentlemen” going to start over the Strahlegg that afternoon. We were quite disappointed at this, for we wanted the club hut to ourselves, and the scenery, too, for that matter, and had supposed that so late in the season there would be no trouble about it. However, it was the fortune of war, and it seemed foolish to wait over another day and risk bad weather to escape them. Biner seemed to be rather pleased at the prospect. He said it would make it much easier and safer for us to join forces with the other party and all be roped together for the next day’s climb. We reserved decision on this point.
Shortly after lunch we started forth, so as not to be hurried. The other party were ahead of us. Our way led over glacier débris and along a moraine, stony, scrambly, but presenting no difficulties. We seemed to be charging directly at the Finsteraarhorn. The “Infant Aar” had been lost to sight in the great glaciers that gave it birth. We were approaching the heart of the High Alps at last.
By way of acquiring information, I asked Biner as we walked along of what nationality the gentlemen might be who belonged to the other party. The question visibly embarrassed him. “They are Swiss,” he said. “But—well, they are not gentlemen. They are employees of the Grimsel hotel, which is about to close for the season, and they are going home this way for pleasure. They are all good mountaineers, so they will be very useful to us.” A little more questioning elicited the fact that they were the chief cook, the barber, and a stableman who often served as porter to climbing parties and hoped some day to be a guide. We were rather relieved than otherwise by this information. Tourists, if underbred, might have proved annoying in such close quarters, but these people would doubtless be entirely unobtrusive.
The Dollfus Pavilion is a thick-walled stone hut built on a cliff overhanging the glacier. The altitude is 7850 feet. By the time we reached it, the evening winds were holding high and chilly carnival around it and the clouds were closing down.
As we opened the door of the hut, we stepped into an atmosphere almost unbreathable with wood smoke from the stove combined with liquor fumes from a steaming kettle. Half-choking, we beat a hasty retreat into the open air. The occupants of the hut rushed out with exuberant hospitality, begging us to come in and get warm and partake of the “tea” they were brewing. The smoke would soon be gone. The fire had been hard to start, but was all right now. We thanked them, but said we preferred the outer air for the present. These self-effacing hotel employees did not seem to be turning out exactly as we had expected. We had not reckoned on the cognac.
It was cold outside and getting colder. Snowflakes began sifting down on us. Had there been any possibility of getting back to the Grimsel we certainly would have done so. But it was out of the question at that time. Presently Biner came out and said our supper was ready. He had had nothing to prepare except the coffee.