THE MATTERHORN TRAGEDY.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 18 September 1901, Page 4

THE MATTERHORN TRAGEDY.

How the Fatality Occurred.

The ‘ Daily Mail ’ of July 26tk contains the following account of the tragedy on the Matterhorn, of which cable advice reached this colony at the time. The ‘ Mail’s ’ Zermatt correspondent writes :

The most terrible accident recorded in recent years upon the Matterhorn happened on Tuesday, when, through the breaking of the rope, two climbers lost their lives on the Italian side of the mountain. The descent of the Italian side—they were descending—is still both dangerous and difficult, though ropes and chains are fixed in the worst places. There are three stages in the descent; from the summit to the Italian club hut, from the Italian club hut to the Col du Lion, and from the Col du Lion to the Grand Staircase and the Breuil pastures. At the Grand Staircase safety is leached. Up to that point the climber is perpetually face to face with death, hanging over the most frightful precipices and looking down upon the cold, cruel glaciers in the abysmal depths below. The descent is always made roped. Only one climber moves at a time in the dangerous places, the others anchoring themselves as well as they can, which on a precipitous slope, often glazed with ice, is not very well. As yet only confused accounts of what happened have reached us in Zermatt, but the followipg appear to have been the facts :

The party, four in number, consisting of two English ladies, one English gentleman, and the guide Carrel—which of the Carrels is not positively ascertained, though his Christian name is given as Leonhard - were on their way down. They had traversed without misadventure the dizzy ridges above the Italian hut, whence you looked sheer down into Italy on the left and Switzerland on the right. The mountain this year is more difficult than usual, while thus comparatively early in the season there is a good deal of ice on the rocks. Stone-falls "have been frequent, and they add to the danger, which is always great. It is said that heavy falls had occurred close to the Col.du Lion, where the rocks are smooth, steep, with the ledges inclining outwards, and, when any ice is upon them, exceptionally treacherous. At this point, it seems, the accident happened. It is a place wdiere the utmost caution is enjoined, and where even the best of guides may not be able to counteract the [ effects of a sudden slip. One of the ladies, all the evidence agrees, was moving. The other three climbers on the rope were anchored as best they could secure themselves. Suddenly the lady lost her hold, slipped, and fell upon the climber below, Dr Black, who was doing his best to help her down. Some agonising seconds followed, in which it was doubtful whether Dr Black would save her or'fall with her. But to the horror of the -spectators above, who heard only a startled cry, the man below lost, his grip. The two slid and then fell heavily, and the rope brought xip with a jerk. In is a custom to give the rope a turn or two round the rock to ease the strain in case of such an accident, and to give a better chance of stopping a bad fall, This seems to have been ..done, ex-

actly as in the fearful accident two years ago on the Dent Blanche. The rope tightened with a sharp jerk and dragged the other two down, when it caught again and parted. The two unhappy souls who had slipped first fell from precipice to precipice into the terrible abyss below the Col du Lion. The horror-stricken comrades arrested by tbo catching of the rope, could do nothing to help or save them. They saw the now inanimate bodies dashed upon the glacier at a vast depth below and knew that all hope had gone. After the shock of this awful scene they remained for some time motionless. They also had sustained injuries. Then at last they resumed the descent in an utterly shaken condition. The accident is similar to that which occurred thirty-six years ago, when Mr Hudson, Lord P. Douglas, Mr Hadow, and Groz fell, through the breaking of the rope on the eastern side of the mountain. On that occasion Mr Whymper and the two Tangwaldcrs escaped, as the rope parted below them. A party of five searchers has left Courmayeur to look for the bodies of the victims. After twenty hours they found nothing. Dr Black was a single man, an M.D. of London University, and for many years house surgeon to tho Sussex County Hospital. He left three weeks ago to spend his holidays in Switzerland.