Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1907 — ALPS CLAIM 17 VICTIMS. [ARTICLE]

ALPS CLAIM 17 VICTIMS.

High Tempernt area in Switzerland Make Climbing; Hazardous. Seventeen deaths and. thirty injured make the casualty roll of the Alps thus far in the mountain climbing season of this year. The mountain guides expect this number to be largely increased before the season ends, for the heat now prevailing in Switzerland and the recent earthquake epidemic have combined to make climbing specially hazardous. Avalanches are continually forming and falling in the most unexpected places, owing to the intensely hot weather. The Simplon, always noted for the serious avalanches falling from the Gletschorn glaciers, was early in July the scene of an immense fall of snow and* rock, owing to the bursting of a glacier lake on the Bodmer, caused by the heat. A somewhat similar fall swept down the St. Gothard line near Lucerne. On the St. Bernard avalanches have been frequent during the past fortnight, and the dogs have been busily engaged in seeking travelers who have been overwhelmed by snowfalls. Last week three Italians were swept away on the Swiss side of the pass. Their bodies have not been found and may not be seen again for years. Scarcely less dangerous are the wonderful ice avalanches or “eislawinan,” which are among the wonders and perils of the Jungfrau, the Matterhorn, the Piz Bernina and the Aiguille des Charmoy. These marvelous falls of glittering, gleaming ice consist of thousands of sparkling tons of shattered and twisted seracs* or ice needles, which have fallen from the glaciers and been precipitated down -the-mountain by the heat of the sun and the action of the w’eather. The hnga falls or cataracts of ice are a terrible danger for the climber without a guide who rashly ventures into their vicinity after sunrise.