In addition, the journey from England is not expensive; the pre-war return fare to any of the mountain termini ranged from £9 to £10 or £11 first class, and from £7 to £8 second class. Existing rates are perhaps 30 per cent or 40 per cent higher. Guides, if they are used, are also cheap, 10 to 15 francs a day with food was a normal wage before the war, though they would often demand more. Most mountains near any civilization have a fixed tariff; the bigger peaks as a rule run from 20 to 30 francs, with a few running to 40 francs (pre-war prices). Thus a party accustomed to the Alps will be surprised at the cheapness of a holiday spent in the Pyrenees, unless, indeed, it spends much time in the centres on the French side.
It is necessary to provide oneself with Spanish money for Spain. French money is not accepted as a rule. If considerable loss over exchange is to be avoided, it is desirable to obtain both French and Spanish notes before leaving England. English money can be changed, at a price, in the bigger French towns.
Literature.
Some knowledge of the literature of our mountains is almost essential to the success of a climbing tour, and there is no lack of books and articles on the subject. Baedeker’s South-Western France is, of course, good for the more civilized region, but makes no pretence at being a mountaineer’s guide. Joanne’s Pyrénées (Hachette et Cie, 1912, revised to 1914) is better, as it gives fairly detailed accounts of the principal climbs, and contains a good general introduction. Count Henry Russell’s Grandes Ascensions des Pyrénées (Hachette, 1866) and Souvenirs d’un Montagnard (Pau, 1888) are both of value; they describe all the more important routes, but the style is emotional rather than practical. Probably the climber will find Packe’s Guide to the Pyrenees (Longmans, 1867) of the greatest use; it is essentially a mountaineer’s guide, and restricts itself to the region between the Vallée d’Aspe and the Val d’Aran; its directions for climbing the peaks are of a practical nature, and often give as much detail as is necessary. Unfortunately it is out of print, and difficult to find. In addition to these guides we have an account of two climbing holidays, called Through the High Pyrenees (Innes, 1898), by H. Spender and H. Llewellyn Smith. This book gives a good picture of the country and of the type of climbing, and it contains an excellent appendix on the “Pyrenees as a Climbing Centre,” and an extremely useful bibliography, including a full list of the many papers on Pyrenean climbing to be found in past numbers of the Alpine Journal and the Annuaire of the C.A.F. It is in these journals, and especially in the latter, that the more difficult modern routes, accomplished since the publication of Packe’s guide, are recorded, and here we have a ready means of knowing in which volume to find them. Finally, Belloc’s Pyrenees makes interesting reading, but it is of more value to the walker than to the climber, and it contains some imaginative detail.
From this short account it will be seen that the Pyrenees make no appeal to climbers who are only content with long and arduous peaks and difficult ice-work, or to those who prefer to climb from a comfortable hotel or a clean hut and who dislike attending in person to the troublesome details of bivouacking and cooking. But to the climber of moderate ambitions, who is weary of the clatter of Swiss hotels or the picnic-parties on Swiss peaks, there are no near mountains which offer so attractive a refuge. The novice, also, who has spent a few summers behind guides in the Alps will discover that one season of guideless climbing in the Pyrenees will infinitely increase his knowledge of mountaineering in the larger sense of the word; he will have experience of route-finding both in the valleys and on rock and glacier, of step-cutting, of using aneroid and compass and of camping, and he will return to the greater peaks with a heightened capacity for appreciating the mountains and their craft.
CHAPTER XIX
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
BY A. L. MUMM
General Topography.
The Rocky Mountains form the backbone of the North-American Continent, and the Canadian Rockies extend from the United States frontier in a north-westerly direction for some hundreds of miles. Of the regions which are of interest to mountaineers, the northern limit is marked by Mount Sir Alexander, a peak which rises a few miles to the west of the continental divide or watershed, a little over 400 miles, as the crow flies (very roughly speaking), from the frontier, and from 60 to 80 miles beyond Mount Robson. The country situated between these two mountains is full of interest for explorers and climbers, but is at present very imperfectly known and mapped. From Mount Robson southward we possess mountaineering knowledge which is extensive, but not quite continuous and far from complete, as far as Mount Assiniboine, a distance in a direct line of about 200 miles (another rough estimate). Till quite recently nothing of alpine or mountaineering interest was known to exist in the main chain of the Canadian Rockies south of Mount Assiniboine, but, in the course of an official survey of the watershed between Kicking Horse Pass and the frontier (1913-16), no less than four groups of mountains, clad in snow fields and glaciers, and containing three peaks of over 11,000 feet, were discovered. No climbing has as yet been attempted on any of them. They extend for about 40 miles beyond the Assiniboine group.[36]