Matterhorn (Switzerland and Italy); Mountaineering
Mr. Craufurd Grove was the first traveller who ascended the Matterhorn
after the accident, and the natives of Val Tournanche were, of course,
greatly delighted that his ascent was made upon their side. Some of them,
however, were by no means well pleased that J.-A. Carrel was so much
regarded. They feared, perhaps, that he would acquire the monopoly of the
mountain. Just a month after Mr. Grove’s ascent, six Valtournanchians set
out to see whether they could not learn the route, and so come in for a
share of the good things which were expected to arrive. They were three
Maquignaz’s, Cæsar Carrel (my old guide), J.-B. Carrel, and a daughter of
the last named! They left Breil at 5 A.M. on Sept. 12, and at 3 P.M.
arrived at the hut, where they passed the night. At 7 A.M. the next day
they started again (leaving J.-B. Carrel behind), and proceeded along the
“shoulder” to the final peak; passed the cleft which had stopped Bennen,
and clambered up the comparatively easy rocks on the other side until they
arrived at the base of the last precipice, down which we had hurled stones
on July 14, 1865. They (young woman and all) were then about 350 feet from
the summit! Then, instead of turning to the left, as Carrel and Mr. Grove
had done, Joseph and J.-Pierre Maquignaz paid attention to the cliff in
front of them, and managed to find a means of passing up, by clefts,
ledges, and gullies, to the summit. This was a shorter (and it appears to
be an easier) route than that taken by Carrel and Grove, and it has been
followed by all those who have since then ascended the mountain from the
side of Breil.(269) Subsequently, a rope was fixed over the most difficult
portions of the final climb.
In the meantime they had not been idle upon the other side. A hut was
constructed upon the eastern face, at a height of 12,526 feet above the
sea, near to the crest of the ridge which descends towards Zermatt
(north-east ridge). This was done at the expense of Monsieur Seiler and of
the Swiss Alpine Club. Mons. Seiler placed the execution of the work under
the direction of the Knubels, of the village of St. Nicholas, in the
Zermatt valley; and Peter Knubel, along with Joseph Marie Lochmatter of
the same village, had the honour of making the second ascent of the
mountain upon the northern side with Mr. Elliott. This took place on July
24-25, 1868. Since then very numerous ascents have been made both on the
Swiss and upon the Italian side. The list of ascents will, however, show
that far more have been made by the Zermatt or northern route than by the
Breil or southern route.
[Illustration: THE CHAPEL AT THE SCHWARZSEE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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