LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 34 Failing, a native of Utica, N.Y., and later a longtime Adirondack guide, had just gone to Crested Butte, Colorado, in June for three weeks of mountain leader- ship training in the Elk Range of the Rockies organized by Antioch College. He and six others practiced map reading, orienteering and navigation; mountain rescue on a 275-foot cliff, including rope management to low- er an injured climber, and emergency medical aid; and lead rock climbing on 5.5 and 5.6-rated pitches on the Yosemite Decimal System, which was new to him. He seconded an instructor without any trouble on a 5.7 climb up 700 feet. They had ranged around among those mountains on a route that included several peaks and passes and got caught in a snowstorm between Crystal and Star peaks. His instructors' evaluation cited "a high stan- dard of snow and rock craft." Earlier that year he'd gotten Red Cross certifications in advanced first aid and emergency care. The training would prove useful. The Matterhorn, meaning Great Mountain from what's come to be called the regional Arpitan dialect, is an asymmetrical pyramid, with four faces toward each of the compass points with four ridges in be- tween that have all become mountaineering routes. It stands somewhat alone among the Alps, its shape distinctive against the sky. By some estimates it has killed more than 500 climbers, making it the world's deadliest peak for mountaineers. In 1865, it was one of the last high peaks summit- ed in the Alps, near the end of what's been called a "golden age of mountaineering." Many locally had con- sidered it unclimbable and some thought it haunted. Whymper, an engraver and illustrator tasked profes- sionally with sketching several Alps, became obsessed and attempted it seven or eight times over five years before reaching the top at age 24. With him were three guides. Michel Croz, leading the hard- est part of the ascent and the descent, died. Two others, Peter Taugwalder and his son Peter, were roped with Whymper above and those three held on. Also killed were three Englishmen with a passion for mountaineer- ing, among them 18-year-old Lord Francis Douglas. Three days later, the guide Jean-Antoine Carrel, who had climbed with Whymper on a few earlier attempts, and another man summited the Matterhorn from the Ital- ian side. It had become a sort of race, where Whymper kicked a few rocks down from the tiny summit toward his rivals to let them know he had done it first. The other usual danger on the 14,692-foot mountain is falling rock loosened by the sun that melts ice hold- ing it or knocked loose by climbers higher up. The four in Failing's group wore helmets. They'd also been told, he recalled, that 16 climbers already died that year and that many Matterhorn deaths were among those who went, like them, without a local guide. Still, they were young, fit, familiar with other high places. After meeting in Frankfurt they'd worked out their rhythm as a team days earlier on the vertical rock formations in Germany's Asselstein Mountains. That included climbing over the mushroom-shaped over- hang that guarded one summit. "The rock was soft sandstone," Failing recalled. "From the top you could see 360 degrees of the forest with villages and pastures in every direction. Some of the other mountains had medieval castles on them. Ev- eryone was quick and agile and our trust in each other grew. It was time to head for the Alps."

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