CHAPTER V
THE BERNESE OBERLAND FROM END TO END
The Oberland circuit—My appointment with Arnold Lunn—An Anglo-Swiss piece of work—An unbelieving public—Switzerland and Britain—Geographical—Practical—We start from Beatenberg—The Jungfrau ice-slabs—New Year’s Day at Kandersteg—In the Gasterenthal—On the Tschingelfirn—Foehn-effects on the Petersgrat—The Telli glacier—The Kippel bottle-race—A church door—Theodore Kalbermatten—The Loetschen pass—Burnt socks—Roped ski-ing—The Concordia breakfast-table—Why we did not ascend the Jungfrau—The Concordia huts—The Grünhornlücke—On snow “lips” and cornices—An afternoon snooze—The Finsteraarhorn hut—A guideless party—Ascent of the Finsteraarhorn—Our next pass—A stranded runner—The Grimsel—Home life at Guttannen—Our sleigh run to Meiringen—A comparison of winter and summer work—Memories and visions—Table of levels—How to form a caravan—The pay of the men—Side-slip and back-slip—Future railway facilities.
This the Oberland “circuit.” We left Beatenberg on December 31, 1908, passed through Interlaken, went on to Kandersteg, crossed the Petersgrat to the top of the Loetschenthal, traversed the Aletsch glacier between the Jungfrau and the Concordia hut, ascended the Finsteraarhorn, reached the Grimsel hospice, and came back to Interlaken and Beatenberg, where we were again comfortably quartered on the night of January 8, 1909.
This traverse was made into an event and marks a date in the history of Swiss mountaineering. The telegraph and news agencies announced it far and wide. It was the object of press articles and flattering references in most countries in which interest is taken in mountaineering feats. It has been lectured on, and related in periodicals over and over again.
The reception given to a trip of this kind obeys the laws of pictorial perspective. Maybe, however, shorn of the benevolent element so kindly contributed by the public, our expedition is still worth describing in its true relief, in the light of the impressions of the two explorers who carried it out.
This expedition, the first of its length at such altitudes at that time of the year, was an Anglo-Swiss piece of work. It was performed in company with Arnold Lunn.
We met by appointment at Beatenberg, which his father was then opening up for the first time as a winter station. Arnold Lunn is as keen a mountaineer as was ever born under the skies of Britain. His poetic and adventurous mind is endowed with an exceptional facility for imaging forth in words Alpine scenery, and for communicating to others the manly joy which overtakes him in such scenery. He has the soul of a propagandist and missionary. He is a striking example of how, with climbers, performance goes before propaganda, unless one would belong to those who are deservedly marked out as hangers—on to the exploits of others. There are only too many such loitering about the Alps nowadays.