A WOMAN’S CLIMBS 
the Rothorn. Baedeker puts them both, 
together with three others at Zermatt— 
the Ober-Gabelhorn, Dent Blanche, the 
worst, and the Dent d’Hérens—as “very 
difficult (for thorough experts only, with 
first-rate guides)”. 
Because of its condition, soon after we 
reached the rocks it was clear that we 
must abandon our plan to “traverse” it— 
that is, to descend into a different valley 
by its other, steeper, side. Just to reach 
the top took eight hours of anxious and 
very fatiguing work, and a light snow- 
storm and clouds, which veiled all views 
for the last two hours, chilled us even as 
we toiled. In endless series the “gen- 
darmes”” seemed to rise, and to climb 
them was a two-hour task. 
At times the only way to get up at all 
was for the first guide and me in turn 
to mount to the shoulders of the second 
guide. I would then stand aside while 
he was pulled up by the rope. This was 
labor, but worse vet were the last two 
hours, for the top is a pyramid of snow, 
as the name implies, and to climb its 
ridge meant nice judgment to determine 
how to go most safely between an over- 
hanging edge or snow “cornice,” which 
might break off with our weight if we 
got too far over on it, and a slope so 
steep on the other side that to miss a 
step might mean to slide to the bottom. 
While we were waiting for the steps to 
be cut we grew cold, and when we went 
forward I panted from the steepness. 
But more anxious still was the de- 
scent from this snowy summit, for at 
every reach to the next step, far below, 
it seemed as if I should certainly lose 
my balance or slip. The descent of the 
“gendarmes” was difficult, too, but to 
climb down at least is no such strain on 
one’s breathing powers as to climb up, 
so that to me it is always worse to go up. 
Finally came a couloir, or gully, in which 
several flying stones from a caravane be- 
hind made us take refuge under a rock 
until they also were down. “Killed on 
the Weisshorn by a falling stone’’ I had 
read two days before on a grave in the 
English church-yard. The Dent Blanche 
is called the worst climb at Zermatt, but 
Dee ttGie ALPS 661 
my guides assured me that it was hardly 
worse—a little longer, but of the same 
character. 
THE MATTERHORN, 14,780 FEET, 19% 
HOURS 
Again it stormed and shone again, so 
it was September 6 before I could at 
last start for the Schwarzsee Hotel, two 
hours above Zermatt, and the next morn- 
ing up the Matterhorn (see pictures, 
pages 658, 659, and 660). My guides 
urged that it would be better to wait for 
another day’s sun to do its work, but 
they thought it could now. be ascended 
safely, and I did not trust the weather. 
The season was now so late that I pre- 
ferred harder work to the risk of not 
getting up at all. Eight other parties 
had likewise been waiting from two to 
three weeks, but all decided to wait 
another day.- All the’ next “day they 
watched us by telescope, and when they 
saw that we had succeeded they all wel- 
comed us at the base hut, whither they 
had mounted, ready to profit by our step- 
cutting by going up on the day following. 
Profit they did and had much less 
snow—even as we came down at night 
the lower stretches had melted—but for 
them the mountain was enveloped in 
clouds after 7 a. m., and I was glad that 
[ had not waited. 
One of my guides had an ugly scar 
from a falling stone that had nearly 
killed him on the Matterhorn, and this 
was one of my reasons for preferring to 
go when not many. others were going. 
In fact, there was only one other cara- 
vane on the mountain with me, that of 
the president of the Swiss Alpine Club, 
and he had to turn around exhausted 
within an hour of the summit. 
Under good conditions the Matterhorn 
is not now reckoned as presenting extra- 
ordinary difficulties to experienced climb- 
ers in good training, but it is “immer 
anstrengend,” as the Germans say. It is 
always a great strain, a great test of 
endurance, because it is hard every min- 
ute, is very high above the hut, and takes 
almost as long to come down as to go up. 
This is the case under all conditions, and 
now, care and step-cutting over, so much 
