Sierra Club Bulletin. 



Vol. VI. San Francisco, January, 1907. No. 2. 



AN ASCENT OF THE MATTERHORN/^ 



By William Frederic Bade. 



It was a sultry July day as my young friend Irving 

 Cockroft and I walked into Stalden sur la Viege. There 

 really were three of us, for on the top of the Col de Balme 

 we had fallen in with Herr Elkuss, of Berlin, who, under 

 a shock of gray hair, had preserved a sturdy frame, a 

 cheerful mind, and all his youthful fondness for Alpine 

 trails. We had footed it together to Martigny, taken rail 

 for Viege, and had trudged up the foaming Visp to 

 Stalden. It was noon and very warm. After a generous 

 lunch we went to the station to wait for the queer little 

 train, drawn by a species of Abt locomotive, that during 

 the tourist season daily snorts its way up a sinuous and 

 often steeply inclined track to Zermatt. On the station 

 platform I noticed an individual who by various unmis- 

 takable characteristics proclaimed himself a Swiss guide. 

 Our own quest and identity did not escape his practiced 

 eye, for he immediately offered his services. Perhaps long 

 acquaintance with the average tourist, or the presence of 

 our elderly friend, suggested to him the unfeasibility of a 

 strenuous undertaking. He wanted to know whether he 

 might not lead us up the Breithorn (altitude 13,685 feet). 

 This is the easiest of the many climbs undertaken from 

 Zermatt by tourists, and Alpinists have therefore con- 

 temptuously dubbed it the ''Damenhorn" (Ladies' Horn). 

 Herr Elkuss resented the suggestion with a snort of dis- 

 gust and an allusion to this fling. The guide immediately 



* July 20, 1905. 



