UP ON THE HIGH PEAKS.

Evening Star, Issue 23680, 13 September 1940, Page 3

UP ON THE HIGH PEAKS.

Wo all know the famous words supposed to bo uttered by Mahomet, the Arabian prophet: "If the mountain won't come to me. I must go to the mountain." A group of eager French mountaineers recently made these words of present interest and formed a training school.

One should think that witlmut mountains and peaks it would be imposible to go in for this sport, but, nevertheless, the active sportsmen know how to overcome this difficulty. Many big houses have ornaments and cornices and many other things 011 the front, and a skilled mountaineer has said that it is child’s play to climb up such a facade compared with a mountain side in the Alps. A thick down spout forms an excellent training requisite, especially when' covered with smooth

linoleum. They also practise the dangerous method of climbing by which one works oneself up a cleft or between rock walls not farther apart but that one can reach them with outstretched arras. The house in which the training takes place is called the mountain, and its roof is imagined to bo a snowcovered mountain ridge. On the top is a little platform, which is called the peaks. Not everybody can climb up

there. But those who do receive a diploma certifying their ability as a qualified mountaineer. It is certainly an active sport, but it is dangerous. The police have therefore demanded that a net must be stretched out round the dangerous house. And you who read this must not dare to imitate the daring mountaineers. It might prove to bo a little too dangerous for anybody who did not hold properly _ fast, and only those with much practice can do that.