Above The Snow Line

Download or read book Above the Snow Line written by Clinton Dent and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-03-10 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: IN the old days books on the Alps used to be written by men who had perhaps not scaled a very large number of high peaks, but who had fallen under the spell of the great hills (being true mountain lovers and not peak hunters), and who tried as far as they could to express it in words. But of late years Alpine books (with a few rare and brilliant exceptions, which will occur to everyone) have come from the pens of those who know the outward aspect of the Alps far better than their predecessors, but who seem deaf and blind to all else concerning them. Perhaps this is because familiarity breeds contempt; perhaps (and we are inclined to think that this is the true reason) the number of mountain lovers is much smaller in proportion to that of mountain climbers than was formerly the case. It is therefore with very great pleasure that we welcome Mr. Dent's book. Mr. Dent has hitherto been known to the world as a daring and successful mountain climber; by this book he has won for himself an honourable place in the far narrower circle of mountain lovers. 'Above the Snow Line" is perhaps the most successful, certainly one of the most successful, attempts to render into words the true delights of climbing that we have met with in the course of a tolerably wide course of reading in Alpine literature. Mr. Dent often succeeds in putting into words what many before him have tried in vain to express; now and then he contrives to call up and revive a fleeting and shadowy fancy which we had fruitlessly sought to fix and retain. It is very probable, however, that many will turn to this book in hopes of finding in it accounts of stirring adventures by rock and snow rather than an analysis of the fascination of Alpine climbing. And we can promise Mr. Dent's readers that they will not be disappointed, for the book contains some very vivid sketches of ascents and mishaps, though happily none of these last are of a very serious kind. We climb with Mr. Dent up the Balfrinhorn, the Südlenzspitz, the Portienhorn in the Saas valley. It is with a certain feeling of wonderment that we read of the first ascent of the Moming Rothhorn from Zermatt in 1872, a route so often trodden since that one is inclined to think that it must have been known from the beginning of things. The ascent of the Ruinette is, on the other hand, far more novel, but why will Mr. Dent persist in speaking of it as a 'little peak' in 'the Alpine midlands, ' when it attains the very respectable height of 12,728 feet? The successful crossing of the Bietschhorn and the unsuccessful crossing of the Aiguille du Midi (though here Mr. Dent's failure was practically a victory) give occasion for two very vigorous bits of description, the descent to Ried in rain and darkness, and the storm on the Chamonix face of the Midi.... --The Alpine Journal, Volume 1