Mummery

“ MUMMERY, ALBERT FREDERICK (1855–1895) , political economist and Alpine climber, born on 10 Sept. 1855 at Maison-Dieu, Dover, was son of William Rigden Mummery of Dover. His business was that of a tanner at Dover and Canterbury in partnership with his brother. Being a man of means he devoted his leisure to economic studies and to mountaineering. ”

“ We chatted over old scrambles till the faint light in the east had intensified into a fiery glow, lighting up the mountains with a strange unearthly radiance, made doubly brilliant by contrast with the sombre night which still lingered in the deep valley below. Once more we began to ascend, when suddenly, with one consent, we leaned on our axes and gazed mutely at the "aged pinnacle" before us. ”

“ Skill, knowledge, and text-books are supposed to have hurled the dangers of mountaineering almost into the unknown. But Mummery, that most brilliant cragsman—whose own unknown grave lies somewhere among the snows of the giant Himalayas—in his delightful book about his climbs in the Alps and Caucasus, says he cannot forget that the first guide to whom he was ever roped, and one who possessed more knowledge of mountains than is to be found even in the Badminton Library, was none the less killed on the Brouillard Mont Blanc, and his son, subsequently, on Koshtantau. ”

“ There is something strangely impressive in gazing over a great ice wall into inky darkness and absolute silence. The sense of boundless depth and utter mystery seems to pervade one's whole being. The utmost light of our lantern failed in any way to pierce the gloom, and despondency was settling down on us, and we were making up our minds to a night on the snow, when a rift in the clouds let a glint of moonlight fall on the glacier and the existence of firm land, or rather glacier, was disclosed some fifty feet below, accessible by a sort of peninsula of ice. ”

“ Upwards again we had to climb, finally finding that the ridge led to the top of a peak on the west of the pass and about a thousand feet higher. In order to save the extra fatigue of climbing to the summit and again descending to the pass, Mummery made a bold effort, striking across the face of the mountain. In some places rocks stuck out from the steep face, in others ice slopes had to be crossed, and towards the middle a great circle of soft snow, with steep ice underneath, gave us an anxious time ”

“ Altogether eight or nine of us squatted in front of the fire and watched the hungry flames licking round the big cauldron in which the larger joints were jumping and kicking as if still possessed of life. The thinner portions, impaled on spits, were skilfully roasted in red cavernous hollows below the great sputtering pine logs. The leaping flames lit up the faces of the bearded followers of the Prophet, while our porter gave them a graphic account of the precipitous cliffs and towering séracs amongst which the strange foreigners seemed to delight in wandering. ”

“ As a consequence of this terrible weakness, I have been no less than seven times on the top of the Matterhorn. I have sat on the summit with my wife when a lighted match would not flicker in the windless air, and I have been chased from its shattered crest and down the Italian ridge by the mad fury of thunder, lightning, and whirling snow. Yet each memory has its own peculiar charm, and the wild music of the hurricane is hardly a less delight than the glories of a perfect day. ”

“ It is true the crags and pinnacles are the same, but their charm and beauty lies in the ever changing light and shade, in the mists which wreath around them, in the huge cornices and pendent icicles, in all the varying circumstance of weather, season, and hour. Moreover, it is not merely that the actual vision impressed on the retina reflects every mood and change of summer storm and sunshine; but the observer himself is hardly less inconstant. ”

“ But happily to most of us the great brown slabs bending over into immeasurable space, the lines and curves of the wind-moulded cornice, the delicate undulations of the fissured snow, are old and trusted friends, ever luring us to health and fun and laughter, and enabling us to bid a sturdy defiance to all the ills that time and life oppose. ”

“ A biting northerly wind swept across the ridge, and kept the huge expanse of cloud below us in constant movement. At moments vast masses would be upheaved, and, caught by the wind, sailed away, throwing extraordinary shadows on the fleecy floor below. This, like some previous halts, was brought to an end by a sudden uprush of icy cloud and a sprinkle of snow. At 2.15 p.m. we left the top and sped hastily down the slope. In ever worsening weather, we sprawled and scrambled along the ridge as fast as we could go. ”

“ This mode of advance kept up till 11 p.m., when our guides suddenly pulled up and inquired, in an awestruck whisper, whether we could see a tiny light on the right? With great glee I said, "Yes, it must be a châlet." The suggestion was treated with silent contempt. "What can it be, then?" In funereal tones Burgener said, "I do not know"; but Andenmatten timidly whispered, "Geister!" From that moment I could see there was no fire for us; that we should be lucky if we could sneak under the cover of a rock to shelter us from the storm that threatened once more to burst over our heads. ”

“ But the ice was hard, and Burgener was hampered by his wounded hand. Slowly we seemed to crawl along, and ever, when we reached rock, found nothing but smooth slabs, slippery with a glazing of ice. Wearily we plodded on. Fingers and feet had long since lost all sensation, and the only hope that buoyed our sinking spirits was the belief that, on passing a rib of rock not far in front, our difficulties would be at an end and the ascent practically accomplished. ”

“ The ice was bare and as hard as well-frozen ice can be; it was, moreover, excessively steep. So evil did it look above, that he halted and gazed anxiously at the rocks of the Matterhorn to see if we could escape in that direction. It was, however, obvious that we should encoimter prolonged difficulty on them; besides which it would leave the problem of the couloir unsolved. Once more he turned sullenly to the wall of ice, and foot by foot hewed out a way. The projecting rocks on our right, ever tilting the slope outwards, forced us to the left into a sort of semicircular recess in the cliff. ”

“ Every now and then, a larger crack in the ice would necessitate the lighting of a lucifer match, and on the rare occasions when the wind did not blow it out, we crossed the obstruction triumphantly. At other time 8 J when the waste of lucifer matches was becoming excessive, we exercised the Christian virtue of faith and jumped, trusting that we should land on something. Getting through the moraine, on to the clear ice, we were able to see a little better, and made relatively good progress till we reached the small glacier coming from the direction of the snow ridge of the Matterhorn. ”

“ Shortly before dark a furious south-westerly wind drove the clouds down the valley, and the great peaks emerged resplendent in whitest snow. During the night the wind veered to the norths and terrific blasts threatened the security of our tent. More than once we were forced to adopt drastic measures to save it from total ruin. Happily the clouds and mist were put to utter rout, and at daybreak we could see the last fragments of their beaten host hurrying, helter-skelter, across the Zanner pass. ”

“ Some of these shreds and strips sailed high over our heads, shutting out the welcome warmth of the sun; others less aerially inclined now and again got entangled in the ridges below, blotting out their jagged spires and warning us that at any moment the cliffs around might be veiled in impenetrable mist. ”

“ It may be admitted that the mountains occasionally push things a trifle too far, and bring before their votaries a vision of the imminence of dissolution that the hangman himself with all his paraphernalia of scaffold, gallows, and drop, could hardly hope to excel. But grim and hopeless as the cliffs may sometimes look when ebbing twilight is chased by shrieking wind and snow and the furies are in mad hunt along the ridges, there is ever the feeling that brave companions and a constant spirit will cut the gathering web of peril, "forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit." ”

“ Much care was needed to regain the glacier shelf. The heat of the sun had loosened the bonds of ice by which the crumbling slope was held together. Swift and resistless was the rush of the dislodged rocks now and again upset, and it was always necessary to descend with one's head over one's shoulder to see what little jokes the mountain might be seeking to play at our expense. ”

“ We took with us Ragobir, Lor Khan, and a Chilasi coolie, whom I had called Richard the Third, from his likeness to the usual portraits of that monarch. More firewood and provisions and a silk tent were taken up to this camp at the head of the glacier. Two rucksacks had already been left high up on the rocks on the 9th. It was now Mummery's intention to take some more odds and ends up to where they were, and if possible push on with about a third of the provisions to about 20,000 feet, and leave them there for the final attempt. This necessitated sleeping on the top of the second rib of rocks. ”

“ On one day he is dominated by the tingling horror of the precipice, the gaunt bareness of the stupendous cliffs, or the deadly rush of the rocks when some huge block breaks from its moorings and hurtles through the air—a fit emblem of resistless wrath. ”

“ Elated by our success, we strode boldly along its narrow edge instead of adopting the undignified procedure of the morning. Shortly afterwards Zurfluh imitated my bad example and lost the right line of descent. We could see the rock by which our knapsack was securely stowed, and our footprints were on a small patch of snow just above the wall, but we could not discover the line by which we had connected these two points. Ultimately we were compelled to make a sensational descent by a tiny cleft or crack just wide enough for toes and fingers. ”

“ To our left, under the shadow of the gaunt cliffs of the Matterhorn, great patches and streaks of snow still adhered to the ice. The snow was not of great thickness, nowhere exceeding four or five inches, but it was slightly frozen to the slope below, and we mounted rapidly on shallow notches chipped in this loose veneer. In places the snow had slipped away, and we had to cut across the intervening patches of ice, but, as we advanced, the snow became more continuous, and our spirits rose rapidly. ”

“ We traversed by easy ledges, amongst the slush of melting snow, to a broad-topped crag, that projected far over a precipitous gully, plunging down towards the Glacier de Trélaporte. On the top of this rock we unpacked our provisions, and made our first long halt. We excused our laziness, for it was getting late, by saying the "crack" cannot be ascended till the day is further advanced and the shadows less bitterly cold. Our ledge was of the most sensational character. The cliff above overhung, and the tiny streams from the melting snow on the ridge fell far outside us in sheets of sunlit rain. ”

“ It stretched right across the glacier, and the rocks on either side were wholly impracticable. However, at one point we found that the thick covering of winter snow had not actually fallen, but had only sunk some fifty feet into the chasm, and being protected from the sun's rays, had not yet wholly melted. It was a fragile structure, in some places punctured by round holes from which depended long icicles, and in others was a mere glazing of ice a quarter of an inch thick. When an axe was thrust through these weak places, most soul-shuddering depths were disclosed. ”

“ We then unanimously decided that the weather was not very bad, and that we were as good as on the summit of our peak—"wherefore," we said, "let us eat, smoke, and be merry." Half an hour later, after these duties had been thoroughly performed, we began to scramble up the slabs, each taking that particular line which seemed best. Meanwhile the mists closed round us once more. The cliffs above looming through the rushing vapour, looked ever bigger and more precipitous, so, to avoid the possibility of being cut off by some insuperable step, we worked to our right into the couloir. ”

“ A fitting reward has been allotted me; though the delight of wandering among the great snow-fields, of climbing the jagged ridges, and of plunging down through the primeval forest of some Caucasian valley, cannot be rivalled by the rarest fabric built of memory, yet the piecing together of old incidents, the interweaving of the laughter and the fears, the desperate struggles and the wild triumph of old-won victories, has tinged many a winter evening with the gorgeous colouring of Alpine sunsets and has knitted more firmly the bonds of well-tried friendships ”

“ His grunts and groans as he squeezed himself through the narrow passage, and a final volley of those unreportable words in which the troubled masculine mind invariably seeks relief, acquainted us with the fact that the hole was a delusion, and that the mountain had been merely playing us a practical joke. ”

“ Slingsby, however, rose to the occasion; quitting our route of the morning which would have taken us down a long slope of ice on which snow, varying from three to nine inches in thickness, was lying, and which, in its present sloppy condition, would have involved grave danger, he struck boldly to the right, and unravelled a complex series of obstructions as readily as an ordinary mortal would have done in broad daylight. But he was, at length, pulled up by a perpendicular cliff, which apparently constituted the edge of the world and overhung space. ”