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Mountain Craft

A party consists usually of from two to four climbers, exclusive of guides. A larger number inevitably divides into two or more units for mountaineering purposes. The management devolves upon the most experienced mountaineer. His selection as leader, in this sense, is more oft...

Chapters

1. CHAPTER I

A party consists usually of from two to four climbers, exclusive of guides. A larger number inevitably divides into two or more units for mountaineering purposes. The management...

2. CHAPTER II

Too much attention cannot be paid to the question of equipment. The careful mountaineer must always be prepared to face bad weather and the possibility of an involuntary bivouac...

3. CHAPTER III

The question of climbing with or without guides is one of traditional importance. But the long controversy has proceeded without taking into account the change in modern conditi...

4. CHAPTER IV

Rocks are the framework of mountains. Rock climbing is a joyous method of getting up attractive mountains by attractive ways. But it is possible to be a rock climber without bec...

5. CHAPTER V

In no craft or sport is combination so vital as in climbing. The brilliant individual run or single score is impossible. The members of a party are combined for life or death. T...

6. CHAPTER VI

Mountain craft has for its object to get us up and down mountains without mistakes. All our training aims at reducing continually the limits within which our mistakes might occu...

7. CHAPTER VII

Rock is the framework of mountains, and for those who discover their enthusiasm or train their activity among our western hills, rock craft must always remain the basis of mount...

8. CHAPTER VIII

Reconnoitring precedes in action the exercise of mountain craft. But as an art it is the gold cup in the sack mouth of a mountaineer’s equipment. Its effective mastery must rest...

9. CHAPTER IX

Winter mountaineering may be said to date from Mr. Moore’s crossing of the Strahlegg and Finsteraarjoch Passes in January 1865. The first big peak to be climbed in winter was th...

10. CHAPTER X

It is somewhat superfluous to draw attention to the immense popularity attained by photography in the mountains. Among climbers very few are content to supply their requirements...

11. CHAPTER XI

(_The suggestions contained in this chapter are based on some experience of travel in the mountains of Africa and New Guinea, and it is assumed that the conditions are not mater...

12. CHAPTER XII

Since the expedition which I took to Spitsbergen in the years 1896 and 1897, I have not heard of any parties of mountaineers going to that country. Mountains were incidentally c...

13. CHAPTER XIII

Politically speaking the mountains run, with a general south-east to north-west direction, through almost the centre of the Russian province of the Caucasus, dividing it into th...

14. CHAPTER XIV

The best time of the year for climbing in Corsica is the spring. The weather is fine during the months of April, May, June and July; but in the latter half of June and in July t...

15. CHAPTER XV

Although the natural and physical conditions in those ranges loosely called the Himalaya are probably more diverse than in any other mountain region in the world, still a certai...

16. CHAPTER XVI

Concerning the mountains of Norway, their geography and the history of their exploration, a considerable amount of published information is already available for mountaineers: i...

17. CHAPTER XVII

While distance lends enchantment, it also, not infrequently, presents difficulties. The mountaineer, probably more than most people, realizes this as, beside his winter fire in...

18. CHAPTER XVIII

The claims of the Pyrenees on the alpine climber have been set forth with charm and vigour by Count Henry Russell and Mr. Packe, and yet they remain singularly neglected. Possib...

19. CHAPTER XIX

The Rocky Mountains form the backbone of the North-American Continent, and the Canadian Rockies extend from the United States frontier in a north-westerly direction for some hun...

20. chapter v. of the Guide; but from the Beaver-Duncan divide to the

neighbourhood of Wells Pass there is a continuous stretch of alpine country, which rivals in height, beauty and general interest the main Selkirk Range itself. The Spillimacheen...