Mountaineering Without Guides

[The conclusion of a Lecture to the Yorkshire Ramblers’ Club, given on Oct. 27th, 1896, in the Philosophical Hall, Leeds, by Mr. Charles Pilkington, Late President of the Alpine Club.]

I believe climbing without guides in the High Alps to be the finest form of a noble sport, and that Yorkshiremen are sure to be found in the front rank of amateur mountaineers. I would not persuade you, even if I could, to abandon all thought of climbing without professional assistance, but I wish you all to recognise the dangers that may be encountered, and to prepare yourselves to meet them before undertaking difficult expeditions above the snow line.

At the present time there are many Englishmen who successfully attack the High Alps on their own account, and the movement is no longer an experiment; its future success depends on the younger generation.

The older mountaineers who first successfully practised it worked for a long time amongst our own hills, and then gradually feeling their way amongst the snowy peaks – first with, and then without guides – slowly qualified themselves to lead, or descend last, on the more difficult expeditions, or, if without much home experience, had at any rate climbed for years with the best ice-men in the world.

Nowadays there is a rush to reach the end without touching the middle stages of the journey, and there are many athletic young men who are first-rate rock climbers and walkers, whose enthusiastic ardour it seems difficult to control. They know that most mountains are comparatively easy and safe in good weather for any man who has experienced companions and a good head and legs, and forget that this is no reason why inexperienced young fellows of twenty or twenty-one years of age should organise and lead expeditions on Alpine peaks.

I have been told that there is a small school of scramblers who think that the ordinary Oberland guide and the middle-aged member of the Alpine Club are more or less fossils, and mountaineering now is very different from what it was ten years ago. But the mountains remain the same – stern and unchanging; and those who approach them without due reverence will sooner or later suffer for their presumption. One unfortunate side of the question is that these young men are endowed with those very qualities which, if united with modesty and under proper direction, would place them in the front rank of mountaineers.

It must be remembered that almost any snow mountain may become dangerous in half-an-hour, sometimes even in a few minutes. And it is to guard against and combat these sudden and unexpected perils that so much care, skill, and experience is required to ensure the safety of the expeditions under adverse circumstances. The precautions to be taken, the dangers to be avoided, and the equipment required, are subjects that you can read up for yourselves; but in actual work, the situations develop so rapidly, are so varied and numerous, and the action required must sometimes be instantaneous and always prompt, that no mere knowledge is any safeguard unless made available for instant use by practice and familiarity.

A fair knowledge of rock-work can be gained amongst our own hills, but this is not enough, for most Alpine accidents happen on ice or snow, or through the effect of the weather on ice-covered rocks, and it is to the ice-man that a party has generally to look in time of doubt and danger. I have seen a brilliant and experienced cragsman useless and helpless on an easy ice-fall; and it is a well-known fact that many of the eastern guides, splendid rock-climbers and chamois hunters though they may be, are often nervous and sometimes dangerous companions on difficult ice, for snow-craft learnt on rocky peaks, or in only one or two years, even in the best climbing centres, is very imperfect and may only lead to rashness.

I therefore say, emphatically, as my most carefully considered opinion, based on an experience of twenty five years of Alpine work, and after consulting men of equal and some of longer experience, that no man, however experienced in British hill work, should climb the High Alps without guides, unless he has had at least four years’ experience of ice and snow, and has a companion of longer experience with him on the expedition.

In climbing without guides, it is most important to make up your party before you start for the tour; and l it is better that it should consist of four men, so that in ease of a slight accident or indisposition of one, there are still three left for the next expedition. Should you unfortunately want another man to make up the party to the required number for safety, do not pick up a stranger of whose powers you know nothing; rather take a guide or a porter, and do the work yourselves.

When you are amongst the mountains take notice of everything around you, whether at your bivouac or on the march; whether you are leading or not, and with whomsoever you are climbing; and thus learn to form your own opinion, so that you may be able to take command and act when the occasion arises. And assuredly it will arise some time or another, whether you are climbing with or without guides; for guides themselves are not infallible, and are not all by any means in the first rank.

Therefore have the patience to learn your work thoroughly before putting it into practice and staking valuable lives on the result; and by the use of every precaution, and by perfecting yourselves, slowly and surely, in every practical detail of the mountaineering art, may you, the younger generation, who are now taking our places and our work, jealously and successfully guard the character and reputation of the sport we love so well.