Page 60 - BBC Knowledge - October 2017 IN

history
Alpine Disaster

Tragedy on the

The conquest of the last great Alpine peak in 1865 should have been a triumph,
but instead ended in the deaths of four climbers.
Peter H Hansen examines its impact on attitudes to mountaineers

A its southern (Italian) ridges by himself already climbing on the other side of
moment was all
it took for joy to
or with guides. On the eve of his 1865
the mountain. The race to be first was on.
attempt, however, the bravest of these
be supplanted by
Unexpectedly, the team discovered that
horror. Less than
the Swiss slopes formed a natural staircase
guides, Jean-Antoine Carrel, transferred
an hour after Edward
up which Whymper clambered with
his services to a group of climbers from
Whymper had laughed
pinnacle, Whymper unroped himself
in jubilation from
the recently unified Italy on the summit.
and raced to the top. Had they beaten
Whymper felt betrayed. By chance,
the summit of the Matterhorn on July Turin who hoped to plant the flag of mounting excitement. Beneath the highest
14, 1865 – having completed the first though, he met Lord Francis Douglas, the Italians?
successful ascent of the Alpine peak the amiable, 18-year-old younger The snow was untrodden. Laughing
on the Swiss-Italian border – brother of the Marquess of Queensberry. with joy, the climbers spotted the Italians
his triumph was shattered by tragedy. Douglas’s Swiss guide, Peter Taugwalder, below, mere dots on the ridge. Whymper
Among his group was an inexperienced had inspected the northern side of the and Croz shouted and waved their arms,
young climber who slipped on Matterhorn and believed that it could be but were unsure whether they had been
a treacherous section of descent, climbed from the Swiss village of Zermatt. seen: “We drove our sticks in, and prized
dragging off the mountain three others The new companions crossed into away the crags, and soon a torrent of stones
who were roped to him. On hearing Switzerland. There, they met the poured down the cliffs. There was
the cries of the falling men, Whymper Reverend Charles Hudson, a muscular no mistake about it this time. The Italians
and his two local guides had just English clergyman. He was travelling turned and fled.”
an instant to brace themselves before with Douglas Hadow, an 18-year-old At the summit, Croz tied his shirt to
the force of the accident broke the rope climbing novice, and Michel Croz, a tent-pole, creating an impromptu flag
tying them to the falling climbers. a well-known French guide who visible from all directions. Whymper
“For a few seconds,” Whymper recalled, had previously climbed with sketched the panoramic view and
“we saw our unfortunate companions Whymper. One of Taugwalder’s chipped off a piece of rock as a souvenir.
sliding downwards on their backs, and sons also joined the team. After building a pile of stones and
spreading out their hands, endeavouring Since the mid-1850s, many leaving their names in a bottle,
to save themselves. They passed from an Alpine summit had felt the group began the descent,
our sight uninjured, disappeared one by the scrape of British hobnailed led by Croz.
one, and fell from precipice to precipice.” boots attempting first ascents, Reaching the steepest, most
The four hapless climbers plummeted but the 4,478-metre (14,692ft) treacherous section, Croz
1,200 metres, their bodies dashed Matterhorn remained began to manually place
to pieces on the glacier below. unconquered. As Whymper’s Hadow’s boots in
The Matterhorn accident was one of team ascended the north- each step. At a crucial
the deadliest mountaineering catastrophes eastern ridge, they knew moment, though,
of the 19th century, sparking a wide debate the Italians were Hadow slipped and
about mountaineering, masculinity knocked him over,
and empire. and Hudson and
Whymper was the unlikely leader of Douglas were yanked
a climbing team that had been formed off their feet. Hearing
only days earlier. This engraver from Edward Whymper in climbing their cries, Whymper
south London had laid siege to the gear around the time of his and Taugwalder TOPFOTO/GETTY
Matterhorn conquest
Matterhorn since 1861, climbing on planted themselves
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OCTOBER 2017