XIV.

_THE MATTERHORN-SECOND ASSAULT._

Four years ago I had not entertained a wish or a thought regarding the

climbing of the Matterhorn. Indeed, assailing mountains of any kind was

then but an accidental interlude to less exciting occupations upon the

glaciers of the Alps. But in 1859 Mr. Vaughan Hawkins had inspected the

mountain from Breuil, and in 1860, on the strength of this inspection,

he invited me to join him in an attack upon the untrodden peak.

Guided by Johann Bennen, and accompanied by an old chamois-hunter

named Carrel, we tried the mountain, but had to halt midway among its

precipices. We returned to Breuil with the belief that, if sufficient

time could be secured, the summit--at least, _one_ summit--might be

won. Had I felt that we had done our best on this occasion, I should

have relinquished all further thought of the mountain; but, unhappily,

I felt the reverse, and thus a little cloud of dissatisfaction hung

round the memory of the attempt. In 1861 I once more looked at the

Matterhorn, but, as shown in Chapter X., was forbidden to set foot

upon it. Finally, in 1862, the desire to finish what I felt to be a

piece of work only half completed beset me so strongly that I resolved

to make a last attack upon the unconquered hill.

The resolution, as a whole, may have been a rash one, but there was no

rashness displayed in the carrying out of its details. I did not ignore

the law of gravity, but felt, on the contrary, that the strongest

aspirations towards the summit of the Matterhorn would not prevent

precipitation to its base through a false step or a failing grasp.

The general plan proposed was this: Two first-rate guides were to be

engaged, and, to leave their arms free, they were to be accompanied by

two strong and expert porters. The party was thus to consist of five in

all. During the ascent it was proposed that three of those men should

always be, not only out of danger, but attached firmly to the rocks;

and while they were thus secure, it was thought that the remaining two

might take liberties, and commit themselves to ventures which would

otherwise be inexcusable or impossible. With a view to this, I had a

rope specially manufactured in London, and guaranteed by its maker

to bear a far greater strain than was ever likely to be thrown upon

it. A light ladder was also constructed, the two sides of which might

be carried like huge alpenstocks, while its steps, which could be

inserted at any moment, were strapped upon a porter’s back. Long iron

nails and a hammer were also among our appliances. Actual experience

considerably modified these arrangements, and compelled us in almost

all cases to resort to methods as much open to a savage as to people

acquainted with the mechanical arts.

Throughout the latter half of July rumours from the Matterhorn were

rife in the Bernese Oberland, and I felt an extreme dislike to add

to the gossip. Wishing, moreover, that others who desired it might

have a fair trial, I lingered for nearly three weeks among the

Bernese and Valasian Alps. This time, however, was not wasted. It was

employed in burning up the effete matters which nine months’ work

in London had lodged in my muscles--in rescuing the blood from that

fatty degeneration which a sedentary life is calculated to induce. I

chose instead of the air of a laboratory that of the Wetterhorn, the

Galenstock, and the mountains which surround the Great Aletsch glacier.

Each succeeding day added to my strength.

There is assuredly morality in the oxygen of the mountains, as there is

immorality in the miasma of a marsh, and a higher power than mere brute

force lies latent in Alpine mutton. We are recognising more and more

the influence of physical elements in the conduct of life, for when the

blood flows in a purer current the heart is capable of a higher glow.

Spirit and matter are interfused; the Alps improve us _totally_, and we

return from their precipices wiser as well as stronger men.

It is usual for the proprietor of the hotel on the Æggischhorn to

retain a guide for excursions in the neighbourhood; and last year he

happened to have in his employment one Walters, a man of superior

strength and energy. He was the house companion of Bennen, who was

loud in his praise. Thinking it would strengthen Bennen, hand and

heart, to have so tried a man beside him, I engaged Walters, and

we all three set off with cheerful spirits to Zermatt. Thence we

proceeded over the Matterjoch; and as we descended to Breuil we looked

long at the dangerous eminences to our right, among which we were to

trust ourselves in a day or two. There was nothing jubilant in our

thoughts or conversation; the character of the work before us quelled

presumption. We felt nothing that could be called confidence as to the

issue of the enterprise, but we also felt the inner compactness and

determination of men who, though they know their work to be difficult,

feel no disposition to shrink from it. The Matterhorn, in fact, was our

temple, and we approached it with feelings not unworthy of so great

a shrine. Arrived at Breuil, we found that a gentleman, whose long

perseverance merited victory (and who has since gained it),[13] was

then upon the mountain. The succeeding day was spent in scanning the

crags and in making preparations. At night Mr. Whymper returned from

the Matterhorn, having left his tent upon the rocks. In the frankest

spirit, he placed it at my disposal, and thus relieved me from the

necessity of carrying up my own. At Breuil I engaged two porters,

both named Carrel, the youngest of whom was the son of the Carrel

who accompanied Mr. Hawkins and me in 1860, while the other was old

Carrel’s nephew. He had served as a _bersaglier_ in three campaigns,

and had fought at the battle of Solferino; his previous habits of life

rendered him an extremely handy and useful companion, and his climbing

powers proved also very superior.

[13] Mr. Whymper.

About noon on an August day we disentangled ourselves from the hotel,

first slowly sauntering along a small green valley, but soon meeting

the bluffs, which indicated our approach to uplifted land. The bright

grass was quickly left behind, and soon afterwards we were toiling

laboriously upward among the rocks. The Val Tournanche is bounded on

the right by a chain of mountains, the higher end of which abutted, in

former ages, against Matterhorn. But now a gap is cut out between both,

and a saddle stretches from the one to the other. From this saddle a

kind of couloir runs downwards, widening out gradually and blending

with the gentler slopes below. We held on to the rocks to the left of

this couloir, until we reached the base of a precipice which fell sheer

from the summits above. Water trickled from the upper ledges, and the

descent of a stone at intervals admonished us that gravity had here

more serious missiles at command than the drippings of the liquefied

snow. So we moved with prudent speed along the base of the precipice,

crossing at one place the ice-gulley where Mr. Whymper nearly lost

his life. Immediately afterwards we found ourselves upon the saddle

which stretches with the curvature of a chain to the base of the true

Matterhorn. The opening out of the western mountains from this point of

view is grand and impressive, and with our eyes and hearts full of the

scene we moved along the saddle, and soon came to rest upon the first

steep crags of the real Monarch of the Alps.

Here we paused, unlocked our scrip, and had some bread and wine. Again

and again we looked to the cliffs above us, ignorant of the treatment

that we were to receive at their hands. We had gathered up our traps,

and bent to the work before us, when suddenly an explosion occurred

overhead. We looked aloft and saw in mid-air a solid shot from the

Matterhorn, describing its proper parabola, and finally splitting into

fragments as it smote one of the rocky towers in front of us. Down the

scattered fragments came like a kind of spray, slightly wide of us,

but still near enough to compel a sharp look-out. Two or three such

explosions occurred, but we chose the back-fin of the mountain for our

track, and from this the falling stones were speedily deflected right

or left. Before the set of sun we reached our place of bivouac. A roomy

tent was already there, and we had brought with us an additional light

one, intended to afford accommodation to me. It was pitched in the

shadow of a great rock, which seemed to offer a safe barrier against

the cannonade from the heights. Carrel, the soldier, built a platform,

on which he placed the tent, for the mountain itself furnished no level

space of sufficient area.

Meanwhile, fog, that enemy of the climber, came creeping up the

valleys, while dense flounces of cloud gathered round the hills. As

night drew near, the fog thickened through a series of intermittences

which a mountain-land alone can show. Sudden uprushings of air would

often carry the clouds aloft in vertical currents, while horizontal

gusts swept them wildly to and fro. Different currents impinging upon

each other sometimes formed whirling cyclones of cloud. The air was

tortured in its search of equilibrium. Sometimes all sight of the

lower world was cut away--then again the fog would melt and show us the

sunny pastures of Breuil smiling far beneath. Sudden peals upon the

heights, succeeded by the sound of tumbling rocks, announced, from time

to time, the disintegration of the Matterhorn. We were quite swathed in

fog when we retired to rest, and had scarcely a hope that the morrow’s

sun would be able to dispel the gloom. Throughout the night the rocks

roared intermittently, as they swept down the adjacent couloir. I

opened my eyes at midnight, and, through a minute hole in the canvas

of my tent, saw a star. I rose and found the heavens swept clear of

clouds, while above me the solemn battlements of the Matterhorn were

projected against the blackened sky.

At 2 A.M. we were astir. Carrel made the fire, boiled the water, and

prepared our coffee. It was 4 A.M. before we had fairly started. We

adhered as long as possible to the hacked and weather-worn spine of

the mountain, until at length its disintegration became too vast. The

alternations of sun and frost have made wondrous havoc on the southern

face of the Matterhorn; but they have left brown-red masses of the

most imposing magnitude behind--pillars, and towers, and splintered

obelisks, grand in their hoariness--savage, but still softened by

the colouring of age. The mountain is a gigantic ruin: but its

firmer masonry will doubtless bear the shocks of another æon. We were

compelled to quit the ridge, which now swept round and fronted us like

a wall. The weather had cleft the rock clean away, leaving smooth

sections, with here and there a ledge barely competent to give a man

footing. It was manifest that for some time our fight must be severe.

We examined the precipice, and exchanged opinions. Bennen swerved to

the right and to the left to render his inspection complete. There

was no choice; over this wall we must go, or give up the attempt. We

reached its base, roped ourselves together, and were soon upon the face

of the precipice. Walters was first, and Bennen second, both exchanging

pushes and pulls. Walters, holding on to the narrow ledges above,

scraped his ironshod boots against the cliff, thus lifting himself in

part by friction. Bennen was close behind, aiding him with an arm, a

knee, or a shoulder. Once upon a ledge, he was able to give Bennen a

hand. Thus we advanced, straining, bending, and clinging to the rocks

with a grasp like that of desperation, but with heads perfectly cool.

We perched upon the ledges in succession--each in the first place

making his leader secure, and accepting his help afterwards. A last

strong effort threw the body of Walters across the top of the wall;

and, he being safe, our success thus far was ensured.

This ascent landed us once more upon the ridge, with safe footing on

the ledged strata of the disintegrated gneiss. Pushing upward, we

approached the conical summit seen from Breuil--the peak, however,

being the end of a nearly horizontal ridge foreshortened from below.

But before us, and assuredly as we thought within our grasp, was

the highest point of the renowned Matterhorn. ‘Well,’ I remarked to

Bennen, ‘we shall at all events win the lower summit.’ ‘That will not

satisfy us,’ was his reply. I knew he would answer thus, for a laugh

of elation, which had something of scorn in it, had burst from the

party when the true summit came in view. We felt perfectly certain

of success; not one amongst us harboured a thought of failure. ‘In

an hour,’ cried Bennen, ‘the people at Zermatt shall see our flag

planted yonder.’ Up we went in this spirit, with a forestalled triumph

making our ascent a jubilee. We reached the first summit, and planted

a flag upon it. Walters, however, who was an exceedingly strong and

competent guide, but without the genius which is fired by difficulty,

had previously remarked, with reference to the last precipice of the

mountain, ‘We may still find difficulty there.’ The same thought had

probably brooded in other minds; still it angered me slightly to hear

misgiving obtain an audible expression.

From the point on which we planted our first flagstaff a hacked and

extremely acute ridge ran, and abutted against the final precipice.

Along this we moved cautiously, while the face of the precipice came

clearer and clearer into view. The ridge on which we stood ran right

against it; it was the only means of approach, while ghastly abysses

fell on either side. We sat down, and inspected the place; no glass

was needed, it was so near. Three out of the four men muttered almost

simultaneously, ‘It is impossible.’ Bennen was the only man of the

four who did not utter the word. A jagged stretch of the ridge still

separated us from the precipice. I pointed to a spot at some distance

from the place where we sat, and asked the three doubters whether

that point might not be reached without much danger. ‘We think so,’

was the reply. ‘Then let us go there.’ We reached the place, and sat

down there. The men again muttered despairingly, and at length they

said distinctly, ‘We must give it up.’ I by no means wished to put on

pressure, but directing their attention to a point at the base of the

precipice, I asked them whether they could not reach that point without

much risk. The reply was, ‘Yes.’ ‘Then,’ I said, ‘let us go there.’ We

moved cautiously along, and reached the point aimed at. The ridge was

here split by a deep cleft which separated it from the final precipice.

So savage a spot I had never seen, and I sat down upon it with the

sickness of disappointed hope. The summit was within almost a stone’s

throw of us, and the thought of retreat was bitter in the extreme.

Bennen excitedly pointed out a track which he thought practicable. He

spoke of danger, of difficulty, never of impossibility; but this was

the ground taken by the other three men.

As on other occasions, my guide sought to fix on me the responsibility

of return, but with the usual result. ‘Where you go I will follow, be

it up or down.’ It took him half an hour to make up his mind. But he

was finally forced to accept defeat. What could he do? The other men

had yielded utterly, and our occupation was clearly gone. Hacking a

length of six feet from one of the sides of our ladder, we planted it

on the spot where we stopped. It was firmly fixed, and, protected as it

is from lightning by the adjacent peak, it will probably stand there

when those who planted it think no more of the Matterhorn.

How this wondrous mountain has been formed will be the subject of

subsequent enquiry. It is not a spurt of molten matter ejected from the

nucleus of the earth; from base to summit there is no truly igneous

rock. It has no doubt been upraised by subterranean forces, but that it

has been lifted as an isolated mass is not conceivable. It must have

formed part of a mighty boss or swelling, from which the mountain

was subsequently sculptured. These subjects, however, cannot be well

discussed here. To get down the precipice we had scaled in the morning,

we had to fix the remaining length of our ladder at the top, to tie our

rope firmly on to it, and allow it to hang down the cliff. We slid down

it in succession, and there it still dangles, for we could not detach

it. A tempest of hail was here hurled against us; as if the Matterhorn,

not content with shutting its door in our faces, meant to add an

equivalent to the process of kicking us downstairs. The ice-pellets

certainly hit us as bitterly as if they had been thrown in spite,

and in the midst of this malicious cannonade we struck our tents and

returned to Breuil.

* * * * *

[Three years subsequently, Carrel the _bersaglier_, and some other Val

Tournanche men, reached my rope, found it bleached to whiteness, but

still strong enough to bear the united weights of three men. By it they

were enabled to scale the precipice, spend the night at a considerable

elevation, and, through the scrutiny rendered possible by an early

start, to find a way to the summit of the Matterhorn. They reached the

top a day or two after the memorable first ascent from Zermatt.]