L'Equipement de l'Alpiniste 1900

91 EQUIPMENT FOR THE ALPS

OUTFIT
BY J. P.;FARRAR

Even the beginner had better accustom himself to carry a sack, which may contain his gloves, sweater, etc.

Rucksack: A good size is 21 inches wide and 21 inches deep, the bottom and side walls 4 inches wide, as this gives a flatter sack. Two outside pockets with flap and button the carrying straps of woollen webbing ij inch wide the whole made of waterproof sailcloth with a flap. A good pattern is supplied by Alpine outfitters such as Fritsch & Co. of Zurich, who issue elaborate catalogues of alpine equipment. The Continental dealers supply a very light frame which goes between the back and the sack, thus preventing the back getting hot. The best I know is the "Touristenfreund Rucksackstiitze," No. 20, 3-marks, supplied by Fritsch. The Norwegians make "a novel kind of sack, the weight of which is carried partly by the hips.

The best ice-axes I know are made by Schenk in Grindelwald (difficult to get delivery) . The same pattern Ice-axes are also made by Fritz Jorg, Zweilutschinen, near Interlaken, from whom I have had several
good axes. It is necessary, however, to specify the pattern, as he makes several. Sizes are as follows :

Length of adze-side of head from centre of handle 12 cms
Length of pick-side of head from centre of handle 18 cms
Width of blade of adze 6 cms.
Depth of socket of head (to give weight) 5 cms
Length of side irons of head from lower edge of socket 7" to 8" (about 20 cms.)

Side irons should be fastened to the stock by 3 copper rivets, not screws.

Length of ferrule of axe handle 6 cms.
Length of point of axe handle 5 cms.

The point must not be sharp, and if longer than stated, may tear one's clothes when cutting. The point and ferrule made in one piece are very objectionable, as they allow the point no play if caught.

See article in the Climbers' Club Journal, 1912, p. 147.

I was slightly surprised to find both Svea stoves and Primus stoves available before the turn of the nineteenth century.

On 29 August 1816, Byron left for an expedition to the Swiss mountains. He saw his first avalanche, heard the roaring of ice springs below him, and slid alarmingly down the ridge of a glacier. He despaired of English tourists. At Mont Blanc, he found one lady asleep in a carriage "in the most anti-narcotic spot in the world!", and heard another declare, a wave of her hand taking in the immensity of summits, boulders, pine forests and torrents, "Did you ever see anything more rural?"

In September, they hit the Bernese Oberland, in the canton of Berne – according to Byron, "the district famous for cheese, liberty, property and no taxes". He kept an Alpine journal and, from 22-26 September, its gathering excitement is plain to see. After crossing Lake Thun, he arrived at Interlaken and "entered upon a range of scenes beyond all description or previous conception". He gazed in wonder at the Jungfrau mountain, the valley of Lauterbrunnen and its 900ft waterfall, the Staubbach Falls, which he compared to the long white tale of the pale horse upon which death is mounted in the Book of Revelations.

He climbed the Wengen mountain and recorded: "On one side, our view comprised the Jungfrau, with all her glaciers; then the Dent d'Argent [the Silberhorn] shining like truth; then the Little Giant [Kleine Eiger]; and the Great Giant [Grosse Eiger] and last, not least, the Wetterhorn... On the other, the clouds rose from the opposite valley, curling up perpendicular precipices like the foam of the ocean of hell during a spring tide." He rhapsodised about the town of Grindelwald, its glaciers "like a frozen hurricane". Later he saw the Reichenbach Falls, where Sherlock Holmes would meet his twice-fictional demise a century later and, after watching the locals waltzing at Brienz, he returned to Interlaken, glumly noting, "The wild part of our tour is over ... my journal shall be as flat as my journey".

Byron's Alpine journal is a record of travel rather than mystic urgings, but its legacy was obvious. Filled with a new Wordsworthian passion for nature, and its power to affect the human mind, he wrote Manfred, a three-act "dramatic poem" about a reclusive demi-god and magician who lives alone on a mountain, maddened by guilt and longing extinction; instead he is tormented by the spirits of the universe who offer him everything but the death he desires.

Byron admitted to his publisher, John Murray, that he'd recently read Goethe, but "it was the Staubbach and the Jungfrau – and something else – much more than Faustus" that had made him write it. What was the "something else"? His private sorrow, mingled with guilt, embarrassment and his hatred of both the British upper classes and the reading public, the "spirits of the universe", who once offered him everything. From this cluster of images came his invention of this early Superman, brooding and solitary, a romantic hero dwarfed by the immensity of the natural world.

Manfred acquired a second and third life since its publication in June 1817. Schumann set it to music in 1852. Tchaikovsky's Opus 58 was the Manfred Symphony. Nietzsche was so impressed by the Byronic concept of the Superman, he was moved to write a piano piece.

In 1876 Messrs Cawood, Colgrove, and Cust made their memorable ascent of the Matterhorn without guides which was very much discussed in the Alpine Club. The older members especially shook their heads over the innovation and pointed to Girdlestone's adventures in the "High Alps without Guides" as a warning...

As early as 1870, the Englishman AG Girdlestone published "The High Alps without guides", describing his ascents, mainly passages through the passes, but also climbing Wetterhorn and Mont Blanc. This "extravagance" raised protests, notably from WAB Coolidge and Guido Rey.

Lucy Walker was born in Canada, and raised in Liverpool where her father was a lead merchant. Walker began her climbing rather modestly in 1858 when she was advised by her doctor to take up walking as a cure for rheumatism. Accompanied by her father Frank Walker and her brother Horace Walker, both of whom were early members of the Alpine Club, and Oberland guide Melchior Anderegg, she became the first woman to regularly climb in the Alps.

Walker's achievements were, at first, largely unnoticed except by those in her immediate company. Early successes included the first ascent of the Balmhorn (1864), and the first female ascent of the Eiger (1864), Wetterhorn (1866), Lyskamm (1868) and Piz Bernina (1869). In 1871 she learned that her rival Meta Brevoort, an American female mountaineer, was planning an expedition to climb the Matterhorn. Walker hastily assembled a group and on 22 August, while wearing a white print dress, she became the first woman to stand atop the Matterhorn, and with it gained world renown. Also in that year she completed her fourth ascent of the Eiger during which she is said to have lived on a diet of sponge cake, champagne and Asti Spumante.

In all Lucy Walker completed a total of 98 expeditions. In 1909 she became a member of the newly formed Ladies' Alpine Club where she was acclaimed as the pioneer of women climbers. In 1913 she was elected its second President and served in that capacity until 1915.

On 22 July 1871, the editorial office of the Journal de Genève received a telegram from Zermatt. The Englishwoman Lucy Walker had just become the first woman to climb the Matterhorn – wearing a long flannel skirt as was appropriate for a Victorian lady. Reaching the peak a mere six years after her fellow countryman Edward Whymper had first scaled the mountain, her ascent was seen as a jewel in the crown of female mountaineering. The news of her achievement spread like wildfire across Europe and over the Atlantic. Four days later, Punch magazine even dedicated a poem to Lucy Walker, entitled “A Lady has Clomb to the Matterhorn’s Summit”:

No glacier can baffle, no precipice balk her,
No peak rise above her, however sublime,
Give three times three cheers for intrepid Miss Walker,
I say, my boys, doesn’t she know how to climb!