A WOMAN’S CLIMBS 
sudden storm may be found in huts at 
the base of all the principal peaks. 
The large membership of the AI- 
pine clubs—sometimes 20,000—furnishes 
them with the means to erect and main- 
tain huts or cabins at such points as they 
may be needed, but where private enter- 
prise would not find sufficient induce- 
ment. The highly specialized business 
of guiding mountain climbers is also 
under their direction. They license the 
guides and porters and fix the rules and 
tariffs for their direction; for, unlike 
the English and American Alpine clubs, 
the Alpine clubs of Continental Europe 
are not, for the most part, limited to 
those who have made mountaineering 
records of a certain standard. They are 
made up chiefly of members who desire 
to encourage the sport for its own sake 
and also as a method of attracting 
tourists. 
In the course of travel, a love of exer- 
cise and adventure had given me a few 
easy experiences in the mountains. They 
began as a child in the Adirondacks and 
the White Mountains, were continued in 
the Selkirks of Canada, in Norway, and 
the Dolomites, and finally in the Andes. 
To climb the Matterhorn gradually be- 
came a dream, and quite unexpectedly, 
in August, 1909, I found myself within 
reach of it at the right season and with 
time to get in training. So to Zermatt, 
German Switzerland, I went. 
At the head of a smiling valley, itself 
5,315 feet above sea level, towers the 
mighty Matterhorn, its isolated grandeur 
dominating the scene from every point. 
By means of a funiculaire, even those 
who do not climb may here behold the 
“panorama grandiose’ of these finest 
peaks of the Alps, and as they gaze, 
from its center the commanding ridge of 
the Gornergrat, rising as it does 4,975 
feet above Zermatt, in the very heart of 
the High Alps, even the least imaginative 
traveler feels the inspiration of the scene. 
It is a complete amphitheater of snow, 
ice, and rock peaks. But to him who has 
mounted thus easily it is not given to 
know the joy of the mountaineer, the 
feeling of triumph and exhilaration in 
IN THE HIGH ALPS 645 
such a spectacle. To him it means most, 
since to him it has cost something—in 
the way of effort, and difficulty, and anx- 
iety—to attain the summit from which 
he fain would gaze. 
To climb requires a good heart and 
endurance. The rest comes with ex- 
perience. The technical problems have 
all been solved by the earlier adven- 
turers. A gradual training of the mus- 
cles is best, in order that they may not 
get too tired, and for the feet, in order 
that they may not blister. Two hours 
on a steep path the first day, five the 
next, nine the next, and after that almost 
anything—that is all the training it re- 
quires to make ascents lasting anywhere 
from 12 to 19% hours, as most of the 
serious ones do, without any bad effects. 
One goes up a path to the base hut 
or cabin two to five hours above the val- 
ley, the afternoon before, is asleep by 
8 p. m., gets up at 1 the next morning, 
and starts at 2a. m. ‘The early start is 
in order to have plenty of time to get off 
the mountain before night, and also to 
have the snow in good condition. That 
night one has a long sleep comfortably 
in the valley, and the next day wakes up 
fresh and ready for the afternoon’s walk 
to the base of another peak. Bad 
weather interrupts the program often 
enough to afford variety and respite, 
or, rather, the climbing affords a relief 
from the frequent bad weather of the 
high mountains. 
ZERMATT 
Of the ten ascents that the weather 
permitted of my making at Zermatt, only 
four could be of “‘first-class”’ peaks, for 
the high and difficult rock climbs are 
dangerous when covered with excessive 
amounts of soft snow, and even when I 
arrived an unusual quantity of the win- 
ter’s snow still remained on the moun- 
tains. “The four first-class ascents were 
the Zinal Rothorn, Monte Rosa, the 
Weisshorn, and the Matterhorn, and 
with these only does space permit me to 
deal. 
My first four climbs were in prepara- 
tion for the Matterhorn, but on the day 
