FOOTNOTES:
[9] Émile Rey was one of the finest of Alpine guides. He lost his life, in 1895, through a slip while descending the easy rocks at the base of the Aiguille du Géant.
[10] An interesting inscription, written by Signor Gruber and giving brief details of this formidable expedition, may still be seen pencilled on a beam in the Dôme hut, via which the party returned to Courmayeur. From the general tone of this inscription, short as it is, can be gathered the strong impression which Mont Blanc had, on this occasion, made upon all members of the party.
[11] In 1874 Mr. J. G. Marshall, with the guides Johann Fischer and Ulrich Almer, fell into a crevasse on the Brouillard Glacier. The two first-named were killed.
Professor F. M. Balfour and his guide Johann Petrus lost their lives in 1882 while attempting to repeat Signor Gruber’s ascent.
[12] Sons of Émile Rey.
[13] The original Gamba hut stood on the Fresnay side of the Châtelet-Innominata ridge. In the winter of 1919-20, however, it was wrecked by an avalanche, and from the débris was constructed the present hut which stands on the ridge itself about ten minutes above the old site, at approximately 8,300 feet.
[14] The rocky bed of a glacier sometimes becomes so steep that the ice falls away and exposes the rock underneath. As the ice at the top of such a rock slope partakes of the continual downward movement of the glacier, it is continually breaking away and crashing down the rock to the continuation of the glacier lower down. Swiss guides call such a place “Heisse Platte,” i.e. “hot (or lively) slab.”
[15] Professor and Mrs. Jones and their guide Truffer were killed in 1921 while climbing the Mont Rouge de Peuteret.