Above the Snow Line

by Clinton Thomas Dent

Overview

Above the Snow Line-Mountaineering Sketches Between 1870 and 1880 is a classic moutaineering book by Clinton Thomas Dent.

THESE SKETCHES OF MOUNTAINEERING I DEDICATE TO T. I. D. IN THE HOPE THAT A BOOK WITHOUT A HEROINE MAY, AT LEAST, ACQUIRE SOME FEMININE INTEREST-Clinton Thomas Dent

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781507591581
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	01/17/2015
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.40(d)

Read an Excerpt

56 CHAPTER III. EAKLY ATTEMPTS ON THE AIGUILLE DU DEU The Alps and the early mountaineers—The last peaks to surrender —The Aiguille du Dru—Messrs. Kennedy and Pendlebury's attempt on the peak—One-day expeditions in the Alps and thoughts on huts and sleeping out—The Chamouni guide system—A word on guides, past and present—The somnolent landlord and his peculiarities—Some of the party see a chamois—Doubts as to the peak and the way—The duplicity of the Aiguille deceives us —Telescopic observations—An ill-arranged glacier—Franz and his mighty axe—A start on the rocks in the wrong direction— Progress reported—An adjournment—The rocks of the lower peak of the Aiguille du Dru— Our first failure—The expedition resumed—A new line of ascent—We reach the sticking point— Beaten back—The results gained by the two days' climbing. Accounts of failures on the mountains in books of Alpine adventure are as much out of place, according to some critics, as a new hat in a crowded church. Humanly speaking, the possession of this head-gear under such circumstances renders it impossible to divert the thoughts wholly from worldly affairs. This, however, by the way. Now the pioneers of the Alps, the Stephenses, the Willses, the Moores, the Mors- heads, and many others, had used up all new material with alarming rapidity, I might say voracity,THE LAST PEAKS TO SURRENDER 67 before the climbing epoch to which the present sketches relate. There is an old story of a man who arrived running in a breathless condition on a railway platform just in time to see the train disappearing. ' You didn't runfast enough, sir,' remarked the porter to him. ' You idiot!' was the answer, ' I ran plenty fast enough, but I didn't begin running soon enough.' Even so was it with the climbers of our generation. They...