The pioneers of the Alps PDF
Preview The pioneers of the Alps
1 * UMASS/AMHERST * 312066 0344 2693 3 ':.;.'':'-"-.:'.. ,:'.-'. -'C-:"".':.'.. CUNNINGHAM C. D. TAIN ABNEY F.R.S. '~*~**r%**t« iDaDDDnanDDDDnDDDDaDDnDaDnnnDDnp ,o*J?**.!., *«nst UNIVERSITYOFMASSACHUSETTS LIBRARY DQ 824 C82 DDODDDDDODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDQDDDD THE PIONEERS OF THE ALPS CUNNINGHAM C. D. Captain W. de W. ABNEY, C.B., R.E., F.R.S. SECOND EDITION B STON ESTES AND LAURIAT. 1SSS TREASUREROiOM C7I + JOHNSnOL'SE,C To Sir FRANCIS OTTIWELL ADAMS, K.C.M.G., C.B. Her Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Swiss Confederation, &c, &c, &c. Honorary Member of the Alpine Club THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/pioneersofalps1859cunn PREFACE Tn the pages now presented to the reader will be found a collection of sketches of the lives and of portraits of those who first conquered the great peaks, opened out the mountain highways, and who may fairly be said to have "made possible that sport which so many of us enjoy every year in the Alps — men who are, or have been in their day, undoubtedly great guides. The present is a singularly favourable time for forming such a collection, as in addition to the portraits of those guides who have perfected the Art of Climbing, and who are still among us, we are able to obtain the likenesses of many of those who took the largest share in the work of exploring the Alps after the commencement of systematic mountaineering. The first point on which a decision was required was as to the mountain centres to which the selection of guides should be limited. For several reasons we resolved to confine ourselves to Grindelwald, Zermatt, Chamonix, and their surroundings. Had we gone further afield, there are three names at least — which, as a matter of course, must have had a place in this work Hans Grass, Gaspard pere, and Santo Siorpaes. The next matter was an extremely difficult one to decide, viz. the selection from among the living guides of those who should rank amongst the pioneers. Most amateurs spend the majority of their seasons in the Alps with the same leading guide, and although they may have been together on the rope with other guides, or seen them at work on the same mountain, there are but a limited number, even among the oldest and most experienced climbers, who have had opportunities of really observing and making a fair comparison between all the guides who may be considered to hold a foremost place in the craft. As an instance of this we may mention that the present editor of the Alpine Journal laughingry told one of us, that he had only once seen Melchior Anderegg, and that from a window ! It appeared to us that the most impartial course to pursue was to take the opinion of a selected number of working members of the Alpine Club, whose knowledge of the qualifications of the guides was more than ordinarily extended, and who must be considered as representative men. We accordingly requested ten members to give us their advice, and out of them the eight following responded to our invitation. Their names are a sufficient guarantee — — PIONEERS OF THE ALPS. for the value and impartiality of their opinions, representing as they do the various epochs of climbing from the formation of the Alpine Club to the present time: Mr. G. S. Barnes. Mr. C. B. Mathews. Mr. W. B. Davidson. Mr. A. W. Moore. Mr. J. Walker Hartley. Mr. H. Pasteur. Mr. H. Seymour Hoare. My. Horace Walker. A skeleton list of guides was sent to each (none knew the names of the others who were giving their opinion), with, the request that they would mark with a " D," as "doubtful," those guides of whom they had the slightest doubt as to their being on the list, to strike out those names which they considered should not appear, and also to add any names which our scroll-list had failed to give, but which, in their opinion, should have been inserted. The result of the balloting lists was as follows, giving a -| mark for those names followed by a D.: Fifteen guides had eight votes (maximum), five guides seven and a half, two guides seven, and one guide, Josef Mooser, six and a half votes. It would be invidious to other guides to state further the results of the ballot; we can only say that it left no possible doubt in our minds as to our having obtained a consensus of opinion strongly in favour of the twenty-two we have given, and to which number we had resolved and felt bound to limit ourselves. It will thus be seen that we ourselves have taken no part in the selection of the guides we pledged ourselves to be bound by the opinion of our ; referees. Our endeavour has been that the biographical notices of the living guides should be written either by the amateurs with whom their names will always be associated, or by those who have had ample opportunities of forming an estimate of their character and capacities. We have always asked our contributors to keep one object pro- — minently before them to draw the same accurate and faithful description of the guide's life and character as it has been our aim to give in the illustrations of their outward appearance. With the exception of the sketch of Ernile Rey, all the biographical notices of those guides which one of us has written were submitted to those who had spent many seasons in the Alps with them, and who, although themselves indisposed to provide us with the notices, were yet kind enough to give us the benefit of their criticism upon them. To these and to all those who have contributed biographical sketches we here formally express our thanks and sense of obligation. If there be any merit in this work, we feel that it is mainly due to their labours, which have been
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