ILLUSTRATIONS

Climbing the Matterhorn by the Zmutt ridge[Frontispiece]
FACING
PAGE
Rock-climbing[14]
Crossing a steep snow slope[14]
Scrambling in the range of the Tödi[18]
Climbing the Capo al Dente[24]
The southern summit of Capo Tafonato[28]
The Cinque Fratri from below the Col de Foggiale[32]
Paglia Orba from the Cinque Fratri[36]
Morning mists[44]
Climbing down a steep ridge[48]
The short cut—roping down[48]
The north face of the Jungfrau[52]
The icefall of the Guggi Glacier[56]
“We basked on the roof of the Guggi hut”[62]
Cutting steps over the upper lip of a bergschrund[76]
Evening storm[80]
Morning calm[80]
The Eismeer icefall[86]
Sounding a snowbridge[86]
Cornices on the Punta Margherita[98]
A cornice on the Rôchefort ridge[98]
The Tödi[108]
The Tödi from the Bifertenlücke[116]
The summit of the Tödi[116]
The Bifertenstock from the Bündner Tödi[128]
“... a faithful record of Forster’s blood-bespattered condition”[136]
The east face of Monte Rosa[142]
The Frisallücke[148]
The Grenz Gipfel[150]
The Val Sesia from Monte Rosa[150]
A crevasse on the Zwillings Glacier[154]
Castor[154]
The Swiss ridge of the Matterhorn from the Matterhorn hut[166]
The Swiss summit of the Matterhorn from the Italian summit[170]
The summit of Mont Blanc in 1911[170]
Descending the Italian ridge[174]
The Matterhorn from the Dent d’Hérens[178]
The Matterhorn from the Stockje[184]
The Matterhorn at sunset[184]
“... that tremendous overhang called the ‘Nose of Zmutt’”[186]
An ice avalanche[196]
The north face of the Dent d’Hérens, showing route followed[210]
Back at the Schönbühl hut after the climb[210]
Mont Blanc from the Dôme hut[218]
Descending Mont Maudit[224]
The Peuteret ridge from the Col du Géant[224]
Mont Blanc from the Val Veni[228]
The Innominata from the Col du Fresnay[236]
The Aiguilles Blanche and Noire de Peuteret[244]
“A traverse of about thirty yards across the steep western flank of the Peuteret ridge....”[244]
Chamonix Aiguilles and Mont Blanc[250]
Descending the Grépon[250]
A stiff chimney[250]
A sérac[254]
“Two ladders tied together and laid across the chasm”[254]
The summit of the Grépon[258]
Good, sound rock[264]
The bergschrund below the Dru[270]
Where next?[272]
“La Pendule”[274]
“... A rather steep ice slope—the Mur de la Côte”[274]
On the summit of the little Dru[278]
On the first day out from Phari Dzong[290]
Shekar Dzong[290]
Mount Everest and the Base Camp[294]
Camp II.[294]
“A suitable slope was soon found”[302]
Amid the séracs of the East Rongbuk Glacier[304]
Crossing a trough on the East Rongbuk Glacier[304]
Mount Everest from Camp III.[306]
The North Peak and the North Col Camp[314]
The North Peak from an altitude of nearly 24,500 feet on Mount Everest[316]
Mount Everest from the North Col, showing route[330]
Monsoon clouds[330]
On the return journey to the Base Camp[332]
In a mountain hut[336]
The Aiguille du Géant[338]
The Sella Pass[338]

PREFACE

Man’s heritage is great. There are the mountains; he may climb them. Mountaineering is a game second only to the greatest and best of all man’s games—life.

The War all but dried up the steady stream of youthful and enthusiastic devotees who kept alive and fresh the pursuit of mountain-craft. But fresh blood is as essential to the healthy life of mountaineering as it is to any other game, craft or pursuit, and, fortunately, there are cheerful signs that the after-effects of the War are fast becoming spent. Our youth is beginning to find the dancing floor, the tennis court and the playing fields of Great Britain too narrow, too lacking in scope, perhaps also a little bit too soft; and the craving grows for wider fields and a sterner, freer pastime.

It is primarily for the members of the younger generation that this book has been written, in the hopes that, by affording them a glimpse of the adventurous joys to be found in the mountains, they may be encouraged to take up and try for themselves the pursuit of mountaineering.

Portions of Chapters II and XVIII have appeared in the Climber’s Club Journal, Chapter VIII in the British Ski Year Book, and Chapters XIV and XVI in the Alpine Journal. Where not otherwise stated, the illustrations are from photographs by the Author.

In conclusion, I would like to thank Captain T. G. B. Forster for the loan of four photographs; Mr. A. B. Bryn for one photograph; Mr. R. H. K. Peto for the pen-and-ink sketch of the east face of Monte Rosa and the drawing of an ice-axe; my brother for Chapter VIII; and last, but not least, my wife for her contribution, Chapter XII, and for the tireless pains she has taken in assisting me with the preparation and correction of the manuscript and proofs.

I also wish to place on record my appreciation of what I owe to the inspiration and example of the Alpine Journal and of Mr. Geoffrey Winthrop Young, and to the inspiring influence of Miss P. Broome.

10 Gainsborough Mansions,