MOUNTAIN CRAFT
THE ALPS
SYDNEY SPENCER
MOUNTAIN CRAFT
EDITED BY
GEOFFREY WINTHROP YOUNG
WITH 28 ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1920
TO
THE MEMORY OF
GALLANT COMRADES IN THE MOUNTAINS
- FRANK BERGNE
- GUY BUTLIN
- C. K. CARFRAE
- FOSTER CUNLIFFE
- G. T. EWEN
- E. N. FINLAY
- R. W. FLETCHER
- W. G. FLETCHER
- H. O. GIBSON
- EDMUND HARTLEY
- S. W. HERFORD
- TERENCE HICKMAN
- TREVENEN HUXLEY
- H. O. JONES
- MURIEL GWENDOLEN JONES
- E. L. JULIAN
- HORAS KENNEDY
- F. M. LEVI
- JOSEF LOCHMATTER
- FRANK LUCAS
- SIDNEY McDOUGALL
- NIGEL MADAN
- KENNETH MOORSOM
- L. E. NOON
- L. OPPENHEIMER
- HUGH POPE
- KENNETH POWELL
- PAUL PREUSS
- J. E. RAPHAEL
- C. J. REID
- C. DONALD ROBERTSON
- JACK SANDERS
- H. JONES-SABIN
- LAURENCE SLINGSBY
- MORRIS SLINGSBY
- FRANK SPARROW
- WILBERT SPENCER
- THOBY STEPHEN
- LOUIS THEYTAZ
- H. W. THOMAS
- J. M. ARCHER THOMSON
- ERIK TODD
- KENNETH TRAYES
- GEORGINA MARY TUKE
- HARRY WALKER
- CHARLES WERNER
- C. A. WORDSWORTH
- C. S. WORTHINGTON
- LAWRENCE C. H. YOUNG
[Pg vii]
PREFACE
This book is for mountaineers; and a mountaineer is not only one whoclimbs mountains, but anyone who likes to walk, read, or think aboutthem.
I do not myself attach much value to mountaineering handbooks: anopen-air pursuit can only be learned by practical attempt and from goodexample. I used to read them for the fun of surprising some hero ofmy youth as he strained his imagination to squeeze a grave principleout of a random holiday memory, and for the sympathetic pleasure ofreconstructing for myself the real day of irresponsible adventure therecollection of which was bringing a thrill of forbidden joy to hismind before he composed his face to inflict it upon me in the form ofan edifying three-line precept. I can read them now no more than I canread the ‘climbing accident’ type of fiction popular with magazines,which used to prov