DEATH IN THE ALPS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1931, Page 7

DEATH IN THE ALPS

e TRAGIC SEASON FOR EUROPE.

' TWO CLIMBERS SUCCUMB. The number of deaths in the European Alps has been exceptionally high this year, owing to the sudden changes in the weather. The president of the Geneva section of the Swiss Alpine Club, who keeps a record, states that up to August 17, there were 85 climbing fatalities this year in the Austrian; Swiss, Italian, and French Alps., The highest total for the whole year in the past ten years was 109 in both 1927 and 1930. The lowest was 21 in 1925. The number tends to increase owing to the extension of ski-ing to the higher Alps, There were 35 deaths dur_ ing the last ski-ing season, due either to avalanches or to exposure. A terrible experience recently befell three Alpine climbers on the Aiguille d’Argentiere, resulting in the death oi two of them. The brothers Gobat, of Basle, and a friend named Wettstein, aged 32, ot Zurich, who were staying at Champ3x, set out on August 13, by tile Col du Chamois, for the Dupuis hut. At two o’clock on Friday morning they starteu for the. Arguille d’Argentiere. They reached the Bardet Couloir, at an altitude of 11,500 ft., in a blinding snowstorm. Worn out, the climbers decided to bivouac, and during the night one of the brothers died from fatigue and exposure. Later the two survivors descended to the Snleinaz hut, but o n the way Wettsstein fell exhausted on •> glacier. Gobat arrived alone at the hut. When a search party found Wettstein he showed no signs of life. Artificial respiration was tried in vain for. two hours. ■