Reviews

ROCK CLIMBS IN ARRAN: by J. M. Johnstone. (Scottish Mountaineering Club Guide.  84pp., 9 line-diagrams and a map).
This little book (4½ in. x 6¼ in.) is invaluable to anybody visiting Arran to climb. Eighty-two numbered climbs are described in detail, and most of them are sketched in the diagrams. A classified hst at the end of the book shows six very severes, five hard severes and twelve severes.
In the introduction there is a warning note about the structure of Arran rock: holds either generous or entirely lacking: abrupt transitions from delicate balance moves on steep slab to strenuous jamming in a holdless chimney: rock dust and lichen making vibrams treacherous if not used with great care: a shortage of good belays. 120 ft. of rope per man is advised and a length of nylon line for thread belays where full weight rope cannot be introduced.

H.G.W.

CLIMBERS’ GUIDE TO GLENCOE AND ARDGOUR. (Scottish Mountaineering Club Guide.) Volume 1. Buachaille Etive Mor. Edited by L. S. Lovat.

The S.M.C. published in 1959 their second edition of the guide to rock-chmbing in Glencoe and Ardgour. The first edition was published in 1949; chmbing activity in the area over the last ten years has been such that the new guide has spread into two volumes.

Volume I is a guide to what many people must consider to be the finest rock mountain in Great Britain, the Buachaille Etive Mor. The climbs on this mountain have almost doubled since 1949 and the majority of the new climbs are of V.S. standard. They have been reclassified for vibrams instead of nails as in the first edition and in consequence many of them have been down­graded. Modern methods are apparent in one new climb of ” unclassified ” standard which ” is climbed almost entirely by artificial technique.”

One of the most noteworthy of the new climbs is a winter ascent of Raven Gully, which is described in detail. The following is an extract…” Pitch 4 took if hours; two pitons were used and crampons were worn. Socks were then used until the final slopes when crampons were again worn. The chock-stone in Pitch 5 was lassooed, saving much time in icy conditions.”

The second edition of the guide follows the style of the first in ” a deliberate compromise between extremes of vagueness and detail ” in its descriptions of climbs. It may appear to err on the side of vagueness to those accustomed to the English guides, the majority of which adhere to the pitch by pitch method of description. Anyone who considers that not enough detail is given would do well to read W. H. Murray’s introduction to the first edition.

AT.

BULLETIN D’INFORMATION: Commission de Topo­graphic de la Federation Speleologique de Belgique. 1959.

This bi-monthly bulletin is mainly devoted to accounts of surveys, accompanied by carefully drawn plans of caves.   There are also notes on Geology, Underground Flora and Fauna, Underground Photography; in the January number is a review by the President of the Federation of Y.R.C.J. Numbers 27 and 28 in which high praise is given to the photographs.

Some interesting experiments are being carried out on the ringing of bats. From results so far obtained, one showed that a bat ringed at Vechmael in Belgium, on 15th November, 1958, was recovered at Zaandam in Holland, on 17th March, 1959, a distance of 96 miles. Another bat, ringed on 29th March, 1954, was found in the same locality as that in which it was ringed, on 8th February, 1958, an interval of nearly 4 years.

H.G.W.

CAMBRIDGE MOUNTAINEERING 1958.
OXFORD MOUNTAINEERING 1958.

These journals from the Chmbing Clubs of our two senior Universities are of high quality. The writing has a youthful freshness, and is lively, graphic and informative, the photographs are good and the humour bearable. A glance at the contents shows that the well trodden tracks around Chamonix and Zermatt no longer satisfy these young enthusiasts, and they are quite ready to take on anything between and including the Arctic and the Antarctic.

First ” Cambridge Mountaineering.” Interest is aroused at the outset by ‘ A Letter from Tibesti.’ Some lighdy humorous writing softens the shock by which we are jerked from French West Africa to the Homathko Snowfield, British Columbia, and thence to the Arctic Circle, of which T. J. C. Christie writes on ” Litotes and the Last First Ascent.”

” Climbing in Ireland ” by J. C. Cooper impels one to feel that the Y.R.C. should give serious consideration to a chmbing as distinct from a potholing meet in the Emerald Isle. There are useful chmbing notes on North Lyngen, the Island or Arnoy and Ben Nevis. The Journal concludes with what is too modestly described as an ‘ Interim’ guide to the Carnmore district of Loch Maree.

” Oxford Mountaineering ” is built on more or less the same lines. A fine description of the Welzenbach route on the Dent d’Herens should arouse the interest of some of our younger members. S. K. Richardson takes us to the Arctic, and K. I. Meldrum gives a brief account of the assault and conquest of Pumasillo.

A. D. M. Cox writes of the attempt on Machapuchare in the Reindeer Mountains, when he and Noyce in a splendid effort got within 150 feet of the summit. Whilst on the Falkland Island Dependencies Survey, Tickell and Grant bagged two mountains on the South Orkneys, Devil’s Peak, 2,439 ft-and Mount Nivea, 4,179 ft.

J.G.B.

THE JOURNAL OF THE FELL AND ROCK CLIMBING CLUB.

1958. Pride of place is given to Meldrum’s account of the ascent of Pumasillo, a fine achievement under the joint leadership of Simon Clark and John Longland. The full story of the expedition, in Clark’s recently published book ” The Puma’s Claw ” is a notable addition to mountain literature.

To whatever part of the world he is exiled the climber’s first concern is to look around for the nearest mountains, lulls or crags. T. Howard Somervell writes of what he found in South India, and judging by the text and photo­graphs it was very much more than most exiles can hope for.

There is a general impression that the Antarctic is inclined to be both grim and monotonous: Atkinson and his friends did not find it so; they had a rattling good holiday with some splendid climbing. Harold Drasdo went to Donegal and climbed in the Poisoned Glen: some of us have felt the hot breath of the tiger on our necks at times, but not many the ‘ damp neuter breath of granite ‘ on our faces.

Coleridge has been overshadowed by Wordsworth as an interpreter of the beauties of the Lake District. In the F.R.C.C. Journal of 1954, A. P. Rossiter came out as a champion of Coleridge, and in a well-argued article redressed the balance somewhat. Now, four years later, E. M. Turner, taking advantage of the new insight into Coleridge’s mind and art by the continuing publication of his notebooks and letters, carries the process considerably further. Coleridge was indeed a true mountain lover : he did not merely rhapsodise about them from a distance like so many literary men but knew the hills at first hand, tramping over them in all weathers, noting their changes of mood and colour, and then setting it all down in graphic prose.

1959. This number opens with Sir John Hunt’s ” Caucasus Diary.” Several members of the British Caucasus Expedition 1958 have written their accounts of this venture behind the Iron Curtain, and now we have the leader’s version. Sir John emphasises that the British went first to climb, and second to meet and make friends with the Russian climbers, and there can be no doubt that both objectives were fully realised.

A photograph in an illustrated magazine of the North Face of the Cime Grande di Lavaredo called up for John Wilkinson reminiscences of his own days in the Dolomites and he sets them down here in lively style. H. G.Stephen­son recalls five strenuous but unforgettable days on the South Face of Mont Blanc, and Jack Carswell tells of a delightful week-end in Scotland of which the climax was an ascent of the North Climb on the Central Buttress of Buachaille Etive, with Arnison, Milne and George Spenceley.

In his ” Lakeland Stories 1958 ” P. G. Satow reveals what bad weather does to the Lake District apart from making it very unpleasant, and John Lagoe draws the attention of rock climbers to neglected Eskdale.

J.G.B.

THE RUCKSACK CLUB JOURNAL. 1959.

Eric Byrom, in a delightful essay ” A Rock Climber Before the War,” recalls with middle aged nostalgia his first steps to the rocks—when Abraham was the high priest, when vibrams were unknown, and thin Alpine line was used; when the occasional solo climb was sneaked and enjoyed, and chance meetings on the hills ripened into lifelong friendships.

The comphcations facing the newly married mountaineer can constitute a formidable barrier which many never really succeed in surmounting, but Dennis Davis reveals how he has at least made a breach by contriving what he describes as ” Climbs on a Holiday ” as distinct from a climbing holiday.

We can only conclude that Albert Dale’s subconscious must be in a bad way if his nights are commonly made hideous by the dream he recounts in ” Climb or Excursion.” But he really should have set this down in verse after the style of the Lord Chancellor’s nightmare song in ” Iolanthe.” thus providing a new item in the repertoire of John Hirst and Harry Spilsbury.

J. R. Hastings made his first acquaintance with the Alps by visiting the Silvretta as one of a Ramblers’ Association party. With delightful freshness and humour he describes how he saw his first crevasse, crossed his first glacier and ascended to 11,000 ft. ” The bug, a httle one, had bitten us,” he says. He will soon find it is a very big one.

David Thomas gives a fascinating account of the 1958 Caucasus Expedition. Those who heard Chris Brasher speak at our 1958 Annual Dinner will be particularly interested. A group of friends in the Climbers’ and Rucksack Clubs conceived, discussed and eventually carried out this idea of an expedition to the Caucasus; feeling the need for someone with really high altitude experi­ence, Sir John Hunt and George Band were invited to join the party, Sir John taking over as leader. There was an unhackneyed freshness about its whole conception and fulfilment, and somebody must have put in a lot of patient, and at times despairing, work, to get this party of British climbers through the Iron Curtain. It probably could not have been done in the days of the Stalin regime.

Some hard chmbing was done, and relations with the Russian mountaineers seem to have been happy. It is to be hoped that the ice is now broken, and that many more British parties will be given permission to visit these great mountains. They are obviously quite unique and distinct from either the Alps or the Himalayas.   There are superb photographs and two useful maps.

J.G.B.

THE ALPINE JOURNAL.  No. 298. 1959.

As always, a first class record of Mountain Adventure, but is not its sub­title ” and Scientific Observation ” now only a passing nod to the Mighty Dead?

This number has a strongly cosmopolitan flavour; the contributors include an Austrian, a South American, a Russian and a Chinese; the others remain Englishmen, and the most Enghsh of them is surely Sir John Hunt, who leads off with a reprint of his Valedictory Address to the Club. He comments on the recent remarkable run of successes and near misses in the Himalayas, and touches on the important literary activitives of A.C. members not only in the translation of foreign publications, but in the original researches of such writers as Graham Brown, Gavin de Beer, Wilfred Noyce and Sir Arnold Lunn.

Sir John is perturbed at the relations between the Alpine Club and other home kindred clubs. He feels that the Alpine Club is now held in more esteem abroad than at home, and wonders if this could be due to a suspicion of patronage and even arrogance in the attitude of some A.C. members towards members of less illustrious clubs. He rightly deplores this, pointing out that the A.C. no longer holds a monopoly in either individual or collective chmbing achieve­ment. Sir John pleads that pride in the past history of the Club should not imply claim to pride of place today.

Heinrich Roiss writes of the successful Austrian expedition to Haramosh, and Hamish Mclnnes gives a graphic account of the Bonatti Route on the Petit Dru—a piton, carabiner and eerier climb. Douglas Busk introduces the new 1 : 50,000 map of the Ruwenzori area recently published by the Land Surveys of Uganda.

M. J. Harris, of the British Caucasus Expedition, writes about climbing the East Summit of Dych Tau with George Band, and Blackshaw tells of Jangi Tau. Harris supplies some interesting information about Russian climbing equipment; most of the tackle seems to be good but heavy.

The first ascent and first traverse of Victory Peak in the Tien Shan range is recorded by Ariy Polyakov, who is described as a Master of Sports in the U.S.S.R., and who, judging by his splendidly posed photograph is also the true Intrepid Mountaineer.

It is surprising to read Shih Chan-Chun’s account of the joint Sino-Soviet Expedition to Muztagh Ata promoted (T.U.C. take note!) by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and its Russian counterpart. The mountain which defeated Shipton and Tilman in 1947 fell to these tough trade unionists and the Chinese and Russian flags were planted on the summit.

Anne Davies, Eve Sims and Antonia Deacock had a rewarding trip on the Women’s Overland Himalayan Expedition, 1958. They had no desperate projects to worry them but covered a lot of interesting country, meeting the natives and rounding off things by climbing Biwi Giri (18,500 ft.).

J.G.B.

SCOTTISH MOUNTAINEERING CLUB JOURNAL. 1959.

The highlight is Tom Patey’s account of the successful British-Pakistani courtship and conquest of Rakaposhi, which Patey apdy entitles ” The Taming of the Shrew.” The wooing was carried out with ruthless rnihtary efficiency, which eventually wore down this ‘ tempestuous Himalyan virgin.’

Bennett, Slesser and Bryan give a detailed account of the expedition to the Staunings Alps in Scoresby Land, Greenland and a brief report is included by Wallace of the Edinburgh Andean Expedition, 1958. About a dozen pages of the Journal are devoted to recording new climbs in various parts of the Highlands and Islands.

There is a depressingly long hst of accidents on Scottish mountains in 1958/9. The report concludes with a pertinent comment. ” Too many clubs, and books on technique, are to blame for teaching young people how to climb rocks and ice by mechanical methods before they have learned simple hillcraft on our Scottish mountains, first in summer, then on the easier hills under snow.”

J.G.B.

THE HIMALAYAN JOURNAL. 1958.

Like the mighty range from which it takes its name, there is a solid grandeur about the Himalayan Journal, loaded as it is with long informative articles and profusely illustrated.

Captain Banks gives us his version of how Rakaposhi was climbed and H. Roiss records the ascent of Haramosh. Dennis Davis communicates graphically the disappointment and frustration felt at the brave assault on Disteghil Sar, led by Alf. Gregory.

Those whose holiday period is restricted and whose aspirations are modest will read with interest Frank Solari’s account of the Chamba-Lahul Expedition which he undertook with his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Hamish McArthur, Miss Margaret Munro and Monsieur Emile Bayle. This is the second time this enterprising party has made a sortie into the Himalayas, and its experience should give encouragement to the average alpinist who has perhaps too readily regarded the Himalayas as being far beyond both his purse and his capabilities.

With the memory of our own expedition still fresh in mind all Y.R.C. members will read with sympathy of the tragic end of the Manchester expedition to Masherbrum, in the Karakorams, in 1957, when the deputy leader, Robert Downes, died of a throat affliction at 24,000 ft, during the second attempt on the mountain. In spite of this T. Walmsley and DonWhillans launched a third attack but were defeated by difficult rock and soft deep snow at 25,000 ft. when only 600 ft. from the top.

Kurt Deimberger writes of the Austrian Alpine Club Karakoram Expedition, 1957.    The members were Hermann Buhl, M. Schmuck, F. Wintersteller and Kurt Diemberger; the object—-Broad Peak, 24,000 ft. This was climbed, then in the attempt on Chogolisa, Hermann Buhl lost his life.

J.G.B.

THE CLIMBERS’ CLUB JOURNAL. 1959.

Here George Band gives his reflections on the Caucasus trip, which was obviously a Good Thing for all concerned, British and Russians.

Most climbers must have wondered, in their more morbid moments, what it would feel like to have a big fall and in ” Connaissance ” Simon Clark tells us. As in many other matters the thought is more frightening than the act, and although Clark was badly bruised after his fall, of eighty feet on the north face of the Grand Fourche, he found the sensation at the time rather thrilling and not unpleasant, which is a comforting reflection for all of us.

The last article is an account of the first ascent of Malham Cove in August, 1958,  accomplished by inserting rawlplugs in chiselled holes. Two strands of
the quarter weight nylon rope snapped while the first man was abseiling down, but he was held on a life-line.

J.G.B.

THE BRITISH SKI YEARBOOK.  No. 40. 1959.

In this issue Sir Arnold Lunn celebrates both his 70th birthday and the editing of his 40th Yearbook. As a birthday present the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research gave him a flight, piloted by Hermann Geiger, from Sion to the T£te de Valpelhne and a ski-run, guided by Walter von Allmen of Murren and Hans Furrer of Zermatt, from the Te~te de Valpelline to Zermatt. For a record of sheer enjoyment, and some common sense remarks thrown in about the value of stick-riding and the Telemark, Sir Arnold’s account of the day makes good reading.

Harold Taylor, with his son John and a Cambridge friend, followed a second ‘ Haute Route ‘ across the Bernese Oberland; an alternative to the well-known one across the Valais. Starting from the Rotondo Hut near Andermatt, they crossed the Oberaarjoch, climbed the Fiescherhorner, had three day’s superb ski-ing based on the Concordia Hut, then went on by Blattan and Kandersteg to Schwarenbach, finishing with the Wildstrubel. The account gives details of equipment and provisions taken, and the cost from Andermatt back to Andermatt was £17 7s. od. each for 17 days’ ski-ing.

In ” The Pleasure that is sometimes a Pain ” Viscount Glentworth answers the question ‘ What makes you walk up mountains when a machine will help you to get much more downhill ski-ing?’ by describing an attempt at the Valais Haute Route in 1958, frustrated by shocking weather and including a night in the snow, and a glorious week’s ski-ing on the Oberland glaciers a year later.

Peter Lunn, in ” Revolution and Counter-Revolution ” has a few words of kindly encouragement to those of us who want to go on enjoying ski-ing but:—

Each year the old familiar slopes
Seem steeper than of old.
‘ Lone Tree,’ the grave of buried hopes,
I leave to K’s of Gold.
To younger and to bolder K’s,
While I with stems sedate
By traverses and devious ways
Slide down to ‘ Menin Gate’ !

Too much of the Yearbook is devoted to ski racing, which makes dull reading for the non-racing skier; in fact Sir Arnold himself, in an open letter to the Chairman of the Downhill/Slalom Committee of the F.I.S. complains of the increasing dullness of modern racing and suggests that the F.I.S. should encourage variety in competition, above all the ” Inferno ” type of racing, which is designed to test line judgement.

Metal ski are gaining ground, there is a reversion from metal sticks to long wooden ones, boots are lighter and rucksacks bigger, release bindings are on the increase, but there is a suggestion that the fatal accident in the 1959 Arlberg Kandahar might have been avoided if the victims had not been wearing them.

H.G.W.

Kindred Club Journals

The Librarian gratefully acknowledges the receipt of the journals of the following clubs:—The Mountain Club of South Africa, 1958; Die Alpen (quarterly); Appalachia (quarterly); National Speleological Society (monthly); Craven Pothole Club, 1958; Midland Association of Mountaineers, 1959; Yorkshire Mountaineering Club, 1957-58.