Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1896 — The Alps Under Foot. [ARTICLE]

The Alps Under Foot.

The mystery is gone from tlie Alps—none but climbers know how completely. Every mountain and point of view of ever third-rate importance lias been ascended, most by many routes. Almost every gap between two peaks hat) been traversed as a pass. The publications of some dozens mountaineering societies have recorded these countless expeditions iu rows of volumes of appalling length. Of late years vigorous attempts have been made to co-ordinate ihis mass of material iu the form of climbers’ guides, dealing with particular districts, .wherein every peak and pass is dealt with in strict geographical succession, and every different route, and all the variations of each route are set forth, with references to tlie volumes in which they have been described at length by their observers. Nearly half the Alps lias been treated in this manner, but tlie work has taken ten years, and, of course, the whole requires periodical revision.