Successful Ascent of the Jungfrau, 377 



Of six travellers and seven guides who formed the party, 

 four of each reached the top, viz., of the former MM. Forbes, 

 Agassiz, Desor, and Duehatelies ; of the latter," Jacob Leut- 

 vold (who ascended the Finster Aarhorn), Johann Jaunon, 

 Melchior, Bauholzer, and Andreas Aplaualp. They left the 

 Grimsel on the morning of the 27th August last (1841), as- 

 cended the whole length of the Ober-Aar Glacier, and de- 

 scended the greater part of that of Viesch. Crossing a Col to 

 the right, they slept at the Chalets of Aletsch, near the lake of 

 that name figured in Agassiz's Glacier Views. This was twelve 

 hours' hard walking, the descent of the glaciers being difficult 

 and fatiguing. Next day the party started at six a. m., having 

 been unable sooner to procure a ladder to cross the crevices, 

 and traversed the upper part of the glacier of Aletsch in its 

 whole extent for four and a half hours, until the ascent of the 

 Jungfrau began. The party crossed with precaution extensive 

 and steep fields of fresh snow, concealing crevices till they came 

 to one, which opened vertically, and behind which an excessive- 

 ly steep wall of hardened snow rose. The crevices being crossed 

 with the ladder, they ascended the snow without much danger, 

 owing to its consistency. After some similar walking, they 

 gained the Col, which separates the Aletsch glacier from the 

 Roth thai (on the side of Lauterbrunnen, by which the ascent 

 has usually been attempted). Thus the party, although now 

 at a height of between 12,000 and 13,000 feet, had by far the 

 hardest and most perilous part of the ascent to accomplish. 

 The whole upper part of the mountain presented a steep 

 inclined surface of what seemed snow, but which soon ap- 

 peared to be hard ice. This slope was not less than 800 or 

 900 feet in perpendicular height, and its surface (which Pro- 

 fessor Forbes measured carefully several times with a clino- 

 meter) in many places rose at 45°, and in few much less. 

 We know well, as all alpine travellers do, what an inclined 

 surface of 45° is to walk up. Of course, every step our tra- 

 vellers took was cut with the hatchet, and the slope termi- 

 nated below on both sides in precipices some thousand feet 

 high. After very severe exertion, they reached the top of this 

 great mountain at four p. m. The summit was so small, that 

 but one person could stand on it at once, and that not until the 

 snow had been flattened. The party returned, as it came up 



