




                           ABOVE THE SNOW LINE

                           LONDON: PRINTED BY
                 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
                          AND PARLIAMENT STREET

  [Illustration: THE BIETSCHHORN. FROM THE PETERSGRAT]





                          ABOVE THE SNOW LINE

                         MOUNTAINEERING SKETCHES
                         BETWEEN 1870 AND 1880

                                   BY
                              CLINTON DENT
                    VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE ALPINE CLUB


                                       "_Celui qui n'a jamais ses heures_
                                    _de folie est moins sage qu'il ne le_
                                                       _pense_"--LA BRUYERE



WITH TWO ENGRAVINGS BY EDWARD WHYMPER AND
AN ILLUSTRATION BY PERCY MACQUOID


LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1885

_All rights reserved_





                    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





                                 PREFACE


Some of the following sketches do not now appear for the first time; but
such as have been before published in other form have been entirely
re-written, and, in great measure, recast.



To the writer the work has afforded an occasional distraction from more
serious professional work, and he cannot wish better than that it should
serve the same purpose to the reader.

CORTINA DI AMPEZZO:
_September 1884_.





                                 CONTENTS


CHAPTER I.
AN EXPEDITION IN THE OLDEN STYLE
                                                                    PAGE
Buried records--_Litera scripta manet_--The survival of the unfit--A      1
literary octopus--Sybaritic mountaineering--On mountain
"form"--Lessons to be learned in the Alps--The growth and spread of
the climbing craze--Variations of the art--A tropical day in the
valley--A deserted hostelry--The hotel staff appears in several
characters--Ascent of the Balfrinhorn--Our baggage train and
transport department--A well-ventilated shelter--On sleeping out:
its advantages on the present occasion--The Mischabelhoerner family
group--A plea for Saas and the Fee plateau--We attack the
Suedlenzspitz--The art of detecting hidden crevasses--Plans for the
future--Sentiment on a summit--The feast is spread--The
Alphubeljoch--We meet our warmest welcome at an inn
CHAPTER II.
THE ROTHHORN (MOMING) FROM ZERMATT
The Alpine dramatis personae--Mountaineering fact and romance--The       31
thirst for novelty and its symptoms--The first ascent of the
Moming--Preliminaries are observed--Rock _v._ snow mountains--The
amateur and the guide on rocks and on snow--The programme is made
out--Franz Andermatten--Falling stones in the gully--We smooth away
the difficulties--The psychological effects of reaching mountain
summits--A rock bombardment and a narrow escape--The youthful
tourist and his baggage--Hotel trials--We are interviewed--The
gushers
CHAPTER III.
EARLY ATTEMPTS ON THE AIGUILLE DU DRU
The Alps and the early mountaineers--The last peaks to                 56
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