"The penalty for failure is death; not always exacted at the first slip, for Nature is merciful and ofttimes doth relent; but surely waiting for those who scorn the experience of others and slight her majesty in wilfulness, in ignorance, in the obstinate following of a fancy, in the vain pursuit of notoriety. The rules are known, and those who break them, and by precept and example tempt to break them those whom they should teach, wrong the sport which they profess to love.
"In this game as in any other, it should be a point of honour for us not to make the sport more difficult for others, and not to bring unnecessary sorrow upon the peasants, who help us to play it, and upon their families. It should be a point of honour to play the game, and, if disaster comes in playing it, we have at least, done our best."
ALP A mountain pasture, usually with chalets tenanted only in summer.
BERGSCHRUND A crevasse between the snow adhering to the rocks and the lower portion of the glacier.
COULOIR A gully, usually filled with snow or stones.
CREVASSE A crack in a glacier, caused by the movement of the ice over an uneven bed or round a corner.
FIRN The snow of the upper regions, which is slowly changing into glacier ice.
MORAINE An accumulation of stones and sand which has fallen from bordering slopes on to a glacier. Medial moraines are formed by the junction of glaciers, their lateral moraines joining.
MOULIN A glacier mill, or shaft through the ice, formed by a stream which has met a crevasse in its course, and plunging into its depths has bored a hole right through the glacier and often into the rock beneath.
RÜCKSACK The bag type of canvas knapsack now invariably used by guides and climbers.
SÊRAC A cube of ice, formed by transverse crevasses, and found where a glacier passes over steep rocks. This part of a glacier is called an ice-fall.
[1] These are now known as Mummery nails, and are often used by climbers.
[2] _True Tales of Mountain Adventure_, pp. 42 and 43.
[3] Or, in modern phraseology, "avalanches."
[4] Mountain aneroids generally overstate the heights. The height of Gestola is now computed at 15,932 feet, and that of Tetnuld at 15,918 feet.
[7] _Above the Snow Line_, by Clinton Dent.