The Last Secrets: The Final Mysteries of ExplorationBuchan, John
History
The Last Secrets: The Final Mysteries of Exploration
Buchan, John
Discoveries in geography; Explorers
On the whole, the range offers no great scope for the energies of the
mountaineer. The ice and snow work is easy, and even the huge
cornices, such as are found on Margherita, are fairly safe for the
climber, owing to the way in which they are propped by a forest of
ice stalactites caused by the rapid melting of the snow. On the
other hand, there is abundance of rock climbing of every degree of
difficulty, for the mountains below the snow-line fall very sheer to
the valleys. Luigi di Savoia, Emin, and Gessi are virtually rock
peaks; an isolated summit, Mount Cagni, is wholly rock; and there are
fine rock faces on Mount Baker and the Edward and Savoia Peaks of
Mount Stanley. I doubt, however, if Ruwenzori will ever be a centre
for the rock gymnast. The weather would damp the ardour of the most
earnest _habitué_ of Chamonix or San Martino. A few hours of
sunshine once a week are not enough in which to plan out routes up
cliffs whose scale far exceeds the measure of the Alps. The Grepon
or the Dru would have long remained virgin if their crags had been
for ever slimy with moisture and draped in mist, and the climber had
to descend to no comfortable Montanvert, but to a clammy tent among
swamps and mildews.
And yet those peaks remain almost the strangest of the world's
wonders, and their ascent will always be one of the finest of human
adventures. They are Mountains of the Moon rather than of this
common earth. The first discoverers brought back tales which were
scarcely credible--ice-peaks of Himalayan magnitude, soaring out of
flame-coloured tropic jungles. For long mountaineers were consumed
with curiosity as to what mysteries lay behind that veil of mist.
For all they knew, equatorial snow might be difficult beyond the
skill of man, and Ruwenzori the eternal and unapproachable goal of
the adventurer's ambition. The truth is prosaic beside these
imaginings. Any man who can afford the time and the money, who
selects the right time of year, and is sound in wind and limb, can
stand on the dome of Margherita.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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