Don’t climb with pendejos
Whymper’s Tomb
When one goes to the alpine town of Chamonix one of the tourist attractions for mountaineers is the tomb of Edward Whymper, who became famous for making the first ascent to the Matterhorn and also for the tragic events of such climbing.
*** note: translated in the hurry, so mistakes are expected.
Colossal and beautiful mountain that stands alone on the border of Italy with Switzerland, this 4,478 meters high massif was formed about 50 million years ago and is for many climbers it is “The perfect mountain”. This is the most famous and spectacular of the Alps, it was the scenario where mountaineering probably changed course entering modernity.
The Cervino has exercised a kind of fascination in the minds of people at least perhaps since Roman and Celtic expeditions crossed the Theudul pass to enter Helvetia between the years 100 BC and 400 BC Although there is a record of these events, the Matterhorn it appears for the first time in several medieval writings under the name of Monte Silvus or Servin that could come from the Latin silva (forest) or from the Italian words cervo or French cenvin for deer. The first map of the region and the mountain in particular, dates from 1495 where it is called with the words Matt and Matter, which would give it its other common name Matterhorn, German name that would appear for the first time in 1682.
East side of the Matterhorn , by Juan Rubiano, with a CC license.
I became familiar with the history of Whymper’s first ascent in 1865 because Carlos Rangel, my mountaineering and exploration mentor, gave me the book to read this ascent.
Considered to most as inaccessible in Whymper’s time, it was undoubtedly “the last” great peak to conquer, perhaps more because of the emotional charge that its vertical appearance inspires from the valley than because of the real difficulties for its ascent. Today it seems ridiculous for a mountain to inspire terror, but for the people of the surrounding valleys it was assumed that this massif of rock, ice and snow was the home of invisible spirits and geniuses, it was even believed that it was not only the highest mountain in the alps but of the whole world and that at the top there was a city in ruins where the mountain spirits lived.
To put this mystical-superstitious thought in context, it may be worth recalling that it was not until the articles of Annus Maravilis (from the Latin annus mīrābilis, “extraordinary year”) of Albert Einstein published in the scientific journal Annalen der Physik in 1905, which began to forge our modern ideas of space, time, mass and energy. In particular, his article on the Brownian movement demonstrated beyond doubt the existence of the atom. The Brownian movement receives its name in honor of the Scottish Robert Brown, biologist and botanist who in 1827 looking through a microscope noticed that the particles trapped in the interior cavities of a grain of pollen in the water moved erratically. In this visionary article that could have earned him another Nobel Prize, Einstein derived expressions for the mean square displacement of the particles. Using the kinetic theory of gases, which at that time was controversial, the article provided empirical evidence of the reality of the atom, giving experimental physicists a way to count the number of atoms in a sample using an ordinary microscope. It is important to note at this point that neither at that time nor now we have had a direct observation of an atom, however Einstein’s analysis makes it clear that the statistical properties of Brownian motion are only possible if one assumes the existence of the atom. And it is that the atomic idea is so fundamental to modern thought that Richard Feynman, one of the most famous Nobel Prizes in Physics, used to say that if civilization collapsed but the idea of the atom could be preserved, that idea alone would make us all the important questions to reconstruct modern science.
According to Whymper himself, his pre-scientific-modern era inhabited by fantastic beings and unfounded fears made: “… all more or less capable men showed a strong reluctance or simply refused (reticence was proportional to their ability), or They asked for a prohibitive price. Even, let’s say it once, it was the reason why so many failures had occurred in attempts to ascend the Matterhorn. The first guides were led one after another to the hillside and tried to cheer them up, but they declined the adventure. Those who accepted it did not put heart in the company and turned their backs on the first occasion. ”(P. 24–25).
Whymper met this mountain that “was reputed to be the most absolutely inaccessible mountain, even among the most experienced mountaineers.” (P. 12) during his work as a cartoonist for a publication in 1860. From that year until July 14 In 1865 Whymper became involved both in a continuous exploration of the mountain and in a fierce competition against the only other person who considered the company possible, the famous mountain guide Jean-Antoine Carrel, “the only man who persistently refused to accept the defeat and that he continued to believe, despite all the adversities, that the great mountain was not impregnable and that it could be accessed from the side of its natural valley. ”(p. 26)
Illustration by Gustave Doré of the first ascent of the Cervino by Edward Whymper and his team in 1865. Scanned from A Brief History of British Mountaineering by Colin Wells, ISBN 978–0903908627, in the public domain.
During these years, Whymper would make several crossings, crossed glaciers and climbed intensely in the Alps, getting numerous first ascents to emblematic summits such as Pointe des Écrins, Dent Blanche or Aiguille Verte. Whymper thus became one of the best climbers of his time, reaching international fame. For his part, Carrel was obsessed with getting the ascent from the slope of the mountain that overlooked his native valley. However, success would only come when Whymper after several years of attempts explored the eastern part of the Matterhorn, discovering that what seemed vertical from the Carrel Valley was nothing more than an optical illusion, thus finding a viable route. As Whymper had always considered, even after reaching the top, that Carrel was “of those who tried to climb the Matterhorn, he was the most deserving of being the first at the summit. He was the first to doubt his inaccessibility and was the only man who continued to believe that the ascent would be achieved. ”(P. 162), invited him to make an attempt on the new route discovered. However, Carrel insisted on his original vision so Whymper got ropes and teammates on “his side of the mountain” and thus began a race to the top. To his surprise the final ascent was made in just two days without major difficulties. But the tragedy would mark this passage in the history of mountaineering badly when one of the members of the rope lost foot falling on the guide that was ahead, dragging him in his fall along with two others behind him: “I heard a startled exclamation of Croz and Then I saw him falling with Hadow. A moment later, Hudson was dragged behind them and Lord Douglas followed immediately. Everything happened in an instant. As soon as we heard Croz’s exclamation, Peter the Elder and I clung as firmly as the rocks allowed. The rope between us was tense, and we noticed the pull at the same time. We endured it, but the rope between Taugwalder and Lord Francis Douglas broke. ”(P. 169–171)
Illustration by Gustave Doré of the deadly accident that occurred in the first ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper and his team in 1865. Scanned from A Brief History of British Mountaineering by Colin Wells, ISBN 978–0903908627, in the public domain.
This accident is one of the most famous in the history of mountaineering and put on the table a discussion that has been maintained to date, perhaps due to a general lack of mountaineering culture and its massification in more recent times. Perhaps by the death of Lord Francis Douglas, who has been waiting for a century and a half for the glacier to return him, the echo of the catastrophe was heard throughout Europe. Particularly in England the outrage was such that even Queen Victoria asked Lord Chamberlain if the practice of mountaineering could not be declared outlawed due to its danger.
The fact that the broken rope was found (which is exposed in the Matterhorn museum in Zermatt) contributed to Whymper being exempted from all guilt.
Already then Whymper said very clearly that: “There is no good reason to use a rope in easy rocks, and I think that its unnecessary use can increase negligence. In difficult rocks and slopes of snow (which are improperly called ice slopes) it is a great advantage to be bound, provided the rope is handled properly, but in true ice slopes … or on slopes where the ice is mixed with small stones and loose … it’s almost useless, because the slip of a single person can unbalance the entire group. I don’t want to say that you don’t have to get caught on slopes like that. Being tied gives confidence normally, and trust helps balance. The question is whether men should be in such a place. If a man knows how to stay on the steps cut on an ice slope, I don’t see why deprive him of using that particular form of climbing. If you don’t know, don’t go near those places. ”(P. 143)
In Whymper’s story, several very important elements of reflection can be read. To begin with, he recognizes that there is a high level of responsibility and co-responsibility in the activity of climbing mountains, this later in the book we will call him having skin in the game (SITG) using the term that Taleb adopted to talk about these situations. Secondly, he notes that in some circumstances being in line actually increases the risk of an accident.
Example of rope equipment on top of the Großvenediger; In hard and icy snow, there is a greater risk of falling even on the slopes of only 30 ° slope. Taken from wikimedia with a CC license
To understand this, the reader who has never practiced this activity has to make a mental image of what it means to get involved. The basic idea is to use a piece of textile equipment that fits our waist and legs called a harness, which is attached to a rope by a metal ring called a carabiner and through the rope the first mountaineer joins the next. Typically among mountaineers it leaves a variable distance of a few meters for example 3m and sometimes a couple of turns of rope are usually carried in one hand. Normally ropes of two to four people are made, although they can be larger. The main purpose of this advance technique is to offer security to the team during its advance on a glacier with cracks or slopes of snow or ice. In principle if a member of the rope falls, he must shout -caigo! — to which the rest of the team members react by releasing the rope they have in their hands (this has been left aside for reasons that will be clear ahead) ; They immediately throw themselves into the slope, firmly sticking their ice ax and crampons.
Example of harnes, carabiner, ice ax and crampons. Images taken from the wikimedia with CC license
This in principle seems to be a suitable mechanism to stop a fall and it is normally if the rope is two people and the one that is pointed during the ascent, or rearguard in the descent, is an experienced mountaineer. When this is the case, the experienced partner keeps the rope taut and more than stopping a real fall, most of the time it prevents it from being taken by small pulls of rope. However, if we consider larger ropes for example of four people, things become much more complicated and in fact complex (here I use the term related to complex systems that we will develop later). If you drop a pellet of about twenty centimeters you can certainly catch it safely. However, if it is dropped from the window of a four-story building, that same ball becomes a deadly weapon. In the same way if those who are on top of a four-member rope fall, the accumulated energy of the fall is clearly too large to be absorbed by an individual and the probability that the whole rope will fall, as in the accident of the Matterhorn, it is very large.
Paradoxically, Whymper’s deed with which the golden age of mountaineering ends, including the tragedy of the ascent to the Matterhorn, catapulted the Zermatt valley to become one of the most modern towns in southern Switzerland and perhaps also initiated the mountain tourism In a publication of the Nature magazine of 2018, it is estimated that the global impact of tourism is in fact four times what had been previously calculated. The authors point out that there seems to be a popular belief that assumes that “tourism is a low impact development option and not consumption.” This belief has forced countries to carry out rapid and large-scale tourism development projects, in some cases trying to double the volume of visitors in a short period of time. The authors claim to have demonstrated that such a search for economic growth carries a significant carbon burden, since tourism consumes much more carbon than other potential areas of economic development. Therefore, tourism development has been, at least on average, non-instrumental in reducing national inventories of greenhouse gases. I think that if studies like these were done in detail for different types of tourism, the mountain would be one of the most impactful in environmental terms.
The phrase that gives name to this essay was borrowed from a climber friend, Israel Correa, who was a high mountain trainer at the UNAM School of Mountaineering and Exploration.
