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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photo by G. P. Abraham 

 THE BKRGLl HUT (9,745 FEET) , IN THE BERNESE OB ERRAND 

 This refuge affords a superb view of the Schreckhorner, Wetterhorn, etc. 



fatal accidents. In view of the pitiful 

 and mortifying list of fatalities annually 

 occurring in the Alps, this comparative 

 immunity is suggestive. While the most 

 skillful mountaineers may meet with un- 

 foreseen and unpredictable disaster, it is 

 not this class which usually furnishes the 

 victims. Again these larger enterprises 

 are undertaken with deliberation and 

 carried out with judgment. Time is an 

 important factor and generously allowed ; 

 hence the dread of today's failure does 

 not disturb serenity nor stimulate to rash- 

 ness. Athletic tours de force are not 

 attempted, though, after due weighing 

 of risks, serious difficulties are met and 

 overcome. 



The conditions, therefore, are quite 

 different from those which attended two 

 of the most notable of accidents, that of 

 Mr Whymper's party in the first ascent 

 of the Matterhorn, in 1865, and the ter- 

 rible one on the Dent Blanche, in 1899. 



In the former the party, already too 

 large for safety, contained a novice, 

 whose unnecessary slip at a critical mo- 

 ment on the descent hurled the chief 

 guide from his footing and dragged two 

 others after them to their death. The 

 breaking of the rope alone saved Mr 

 Whymper and his two guides. 



In the other case, a notably rash 

 climber with skilled companions was as- 

 cending one of the most difficult moun- 

 tains by its most difficult (west) arete. 

 Standing supported upon an ice-axe held 

 by those below him, shortly below the 

 summit, the chief guide slipped, fell, and 

 dragged down to death three others. 

 The rope, made fast about a rock above 

 the last man, broke, leaving him alone to 

 make the perilous traverse over the sum- 

 mit and to suffer a thousand deaths in the 

 awful two days and nights that elapsed 

 ere he dragged himself at length, ex- 

 hausted and famished, to a place of 



