March 23, 1916. 
LAND AND WATER. 
GASPARD OF WASDALE HEAD 
By William T. Palmer 
SOMEWHERE in the Vosges, where snow whitens 
the ridge above the pine-trees, is marching 
or scouting or bivouacking, with all his accus- 
tomed serenity, a sturdy Danphinois, a tigure 
well-known to Cumbrian rock-climbers— (iaspard of 
Wasdale Head. A man of slow, careful English, he was 
ever a friend — now he is an Ally, a dour lighting Ally. 
Many a climber at home, in the Munitions service, or 
away with the Colours, has kindly memories of Gaspard's 
advice, patience, assistance : in quaint phrases he abjured 
one to have patience, to use the holds, to climb slowly — 
yes, and even in extreme cases to " trust the rope," and 
be hauled, a craven failure, out of some fearsome cave- 
l)itch or up some sheer slab. 
The Climber's Guide 
For years Gaspard the Danphinois has been almost 
the only professional climbers' guide in Britain — now 
he is a private in the Chasseurs Alpins,,the most un- 
relenting enemies the Germans have yet found. Like 
Gaspard, the battalions are grim, strenuous, mobile, 
and no difficulty can daimt them. Gaspard's letters 
and postcards have told of terrible hardships withstood 
last winter ; of frost and snow, raging gale, and the storm- 
fog held of little account in their warfare. Trenches, 
redoubts, forts of snow built, attacked, defended, and 
the blood of the bayonetted stained crimson many a 
ridge and summit. 
Winter after winter Gaspard was welcomed at Was- 
dale Head, and the Christmas and Easter holidays were 
busy times indeed for him. With June, howeve.r, he 
hastened back to the Dauphiny and spent his summer 
among the eternal snow and ice of the Alps. He was in 
Dauphiny in the August when the summons to war was 
proclaimed, and instantly he rejoined the Colours. 
In his Cumbrian haunt Gaspard was conceded to be 
a fine guide and teacher of rock-craft, and many a good 
climber owes to him the introduction of his most in- 
<li\idual of British outdoor sports. So far as records go, 
he never seems to have pioneered an ascent, but the 
months during which he was in Cumbria are not often 
favourable to sustained and intricate exploration. Often 
his ice-axe rang day after day in Moss (ihyll, climbing 
and re-climbing its icy staircase. The initiation of the 
wealthier class of novice was Gaspard's duty to the 
Cumbrian craft, as well as providing safe companionship 
to solitary visitors who desired something more satisfying 
than the ordinary hill-tracks. Many a man with Con- 
tinental experience discovered his way to the British 
rocks on (iaspard's rope. 
His Pupils 
Gaspard's pupils were not always the handiest or 
most courageous. He had to take what " monsieur " 
presented. Surely the limit was a character with 
Tyrolese hat and shepherd's crook who insisted on being 
roped at the last gate on the Sty Head path, and whose 
]->rogress up the scree-walk was accompanied by querulous 
plaints as to the terrible danger of the way, punctuated 
with admirationjof the " shepherd's " own heroism and 
fortitude. One wishes that Gaspard's quaint words and 
expressive grimaces (the latter told more of the story) 
could be reproduced in cold type : the guide loved dearly 
to repeat the story of that day's sufferings, and one has 
seen him in the yellow lamplight of the kitchen posturing, 
ejaculating, living again the most amusing day in his 
life. With admirable patience Gaspard brought his 
shepherd through the terrors of the scree-walk, but the 
twenty foot rock-pile of the Lower Kern Knotts was too 
much. The visitor bluntly declined to venture further, 
l^nough were the terrors he had known, he would not 
traverse into the mysterious, the unknowable recesses 
of the savage mountains. 
In the presence of climbers Gaspard was a solemn 
man mdeed, but an adroit reference to the shepherd's 
crook was generally too much for his decorum. 
Sometimes a postcard or a telegram would arrive at 
the hotel : " Send Gaspard to meet me top of Great End 
Tuesday eleven " (no signature), and away on the stated 
morning would tramp the guiclo. Xo matter how thick 
and foul the weatlier he would reacli the summit cairn — 
sometimes to spend two hours' waiting in damp and 
chill for a gentleman who did not arrive. 
Gaspard was ever in the forefront of search-parties, 
though maybe the honour of his suggestions went else- 
where. He was always ready, ever resourceful, ever 
thoughtful of the last detail for the comfort of both 
searchers and lost. More than one belated party has 
waited in Walker's Gully on the Pillar until at the fust 
streak of dawn (iaspard came sliding over the great cave- 
pitch on a rope. Endless coils of rope seemed to wreathe 
the sturdy man. There was a rope to secure each chilled 
and hungry climber, and then came the unpacking of 
the rucksack with food and drink. Gaspard knew by 
long experience that limbs and muscles exercised after 
hours in cramped positions are apt to stumbles, jerks and 
tremors. 
All Night on a Ledge 
On one occasion he found a climber practically 
comatose with fatigue and cold. All night the man had 
been standing on a tiny ledge of earth and grass, so loose 
and crumbling that he did not dare to put full weight on 
his foothold. In the dawnlight Gaspard saw that the 
climber's hair was white. Carefully the rescue was 
carried out, the climber hoisted to the upper screes — 
and the frosted poll was a shock indeed to his friends. 
One writes " frosted poll " advisedly, for as the climber 
got back his power of free movement, the dark hair began 
to show. The white was but the frost-rime which had 
clung to every hair. Gaspard was not accounted a great 
rock-climber in the new or Cumbrian school. He had 
a shrewd taste for foot and handholds in his work, and 
rarely attempted an " exceptionally severe " course. 
His work was with the novice mainly and not with the 
expert, his methods were sound rather than enterprising, 
nor did he favour much of the splendid gymnastic work 
which goes to make up a modern rock-chmb of the first 
class. 
In addition to his climbing and guiding, Gaspard 
was " boots " to the mountain-lovers who resorted to 
Wasdale Head in winter. With a sticky green oil he 
anointed the clinkered and nailed boots collected from 
the hall, leaving less heroic methods for the daintier 
footgear deposited at bedroom doors. From long prac- 
tice he was an adept at replacing climbing nails, and 
would cheerfully undertake to give one's boots a full new 
-set of teeth between coming-in at sunset and the start 
after breakfast. And the hobs —well, he had a wonderful 
collection of nails brought from his continental home and 
rarely failed to issue a pattern which pleased. 
Here's to thee, Gaspard, Gaspard of Wasdale Head, 
Gaspard of the Chasseurs Alpins, in camp, in biv-ouac, 
wherever thou mayest be ! Gaspard on the Vosges, ( i; s )ard 
in the enemy's country, (iaspard who is facing toward the 
deep trench of the Rhine and waiting for the whole 
Allied line to advance. May we all be spared to fore- 
gather, when War is a muttering of the past, among the 
clefts and pinnacles of rocky old Cumbria. 
No gift pleases the troops at the front more than a 
razor. On this being made known certain people decided 
to interest their friends in collecting used razors of all des- 
criptions, with a view to putting them in " working order," 
and despatching them to the front. No less than 160.000 
razors have alreadv been collected of which 135,000 have 
been distributed. No matter how old or dilapidated a razor 
may be it can be made good. The scheme lias the warmest 
support of Lord Kitchener, who trusts that further supplies 
will be forthcoming. One of the most active and enthusiastic 
workers in this razor scheme is Mr. Harrj' Smith, Managing 
Director of the Rover Company, Ltd., Meteor Works, Coventry 
and 5Q, New Oxford Street, W., wlio will be In^st grateful 
to anyone who will assist him in continuing this excellent 
work. No matter the condition of a razor, it will be gratefully 
received by Mr. Harry Smith at either of these addresses. 
