REVIEWS

SUBTERRANEAN CLIMBERS : by Pierre Chevalier, translated by E. M. Hatt. (Faber & Faber, 1951, 223 pp., 23 illustrations, 10 sketch maps, 16s.).

“Discouragement often gripped us in the face of the magnitude and the frequency of the obstacles between us and our final objective; but on each occasion one or other of the team members gave us fresh impetus without which we could not have carried on the struggle. It is wonderful team spirit that enabled us ultimately to prevail.”

It is with these words that the author introduces his story of under­ ground exploration which is also an epic of determination and endurance crowned in the end with the success it. so well deserved of linking up the two vast systems, Trou du Glaz and Guiers Mort, and opening up the whole complex network in the Dent des Crolles.

Often with insufficient and inadequate equipment, and often under conditions of great privation and discomfort, Pierre Chevalier and his friends worked steadily on, even through the difficult years of war and enemy occupation.

Though we admire their toughness and persistence, we cannot always approve their technique, in particular their practice of leaving their tackle underground for months at a time Nevertheless the thoroughness of their work, and their insistence on surveying every stage of a new discovery cannot but excite our admiration and fire us to similar efforts in our own land.

H.G.W.

SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS : (Scottish Mountaineering Club Guide). n204pp., 44 illustrations, 15s. 1949. The series of S.M.C. guides is completed with an area whose northern boundary runs from Oban to Dalmally, Bridge of Orchy, Loch Rannoch, and on to Pitlochry. The Lowland Hills N. of the Forth and Clyde are included ; Arran will be found in the Islands op Scotland.

Mr. J. D. B. Wilson has laboured as Editor since 1946 to bring into shape the material of a decade. There are 70 tops over 3,000 feet in the district, among them Ben Lui, Ben More, Ben Lawers and Schiehallion.  Information as to how to reach the many trackless and distant hills is most valuable and astonishingly complete.  There is an easy way to the top of every one, but rock climbing is dealt with fully by a detailed appendix of Arrochar climbs, and a general survey of the crags of the area.

Those Scotsmen, and they are many, who still think the Highland Line of history is a railway, must study page 1 with attention –  and a map.

The S.M.C. can now look with satisfaction on a great geographical work, a study of the Highland Mountains.

ROCK CLIMBS, GLENCOE AND ARDGOUR : by W. H. Murray. (Scottish Mountaineering Club Guide, 164 pp., 22 maps and diagrams, 7s 6d. 1949.)  This compact little volume gives no end of necessary information about the numerous climbs which have been worked out since the opening of the Glencoe Road.  The writer has tried hard not to say too much and to leave people a few surprises. But you must not start out till you are sure that you have it in your pocket.

CLIMBERS’ CLUB JOURNAL 1950.
RUCKSACK CLUB JOURNAL 1950.

These are delightful reading and record many entertaining expeditions.  The Rucksack Journal describes an ascent of the Caiman with Roch and Gréloz, ironmongery inevitable, – and the doings of two parties in the Dolomites, tearing up behind a fast guide.  As I read, it. comes home vividly how much English climbers miss by not attacking the great faces guideless.  Reconnoitring necessary, as in the Golden Age, and chance of defeat – yes, but the fun !

The Climber’s Club Journal has gone over heavily to steeplejacking.  Its men have two articles containing the practice, the Scottish article being rightly headed “Crime in the Coire.”  The Second Ascent of the west face of the Aiguille Noire de Peuteret, led by Rebuffat, appears also in the Alpine Journal, Nov. 1950.  Two bivouacs, 25 pitons used, and 10 left in place.

There is a valuable summary of climbs in Welsh outlying crags, and both Journals have lists of severe new climbs, knowledge of the crags becoming more and more detailed.

With the British going to the use of spikes to force a climb, the impression is left that we are at the end of the Silver Age of mountain­eering, and that it is only a matter of a few years before the Swiss Alps are like the Eastern, and the great climbs “developed.”  The tigers force a route, and leave a few pitons, the next party fail to get out a few more, weaker parties use them all, cut the times and leave a few more, till the route is open to all.  There will be no working out of routes any more.

Climbs on the grand rocks of the Salbitschyn are written of in the Alpine Journal, Nov. 1950.  Finding intricate routes to the tops of its striking towers ought to have lasted a generation, but the age of the steeplejack is upon us and the ascents have been forced up spikes.  And now spikes are even being put into British rocks. How long before the County Council is asked to improve Stiding Edge.?

E.E.R.

CLIMBS ON GRITSTONE.  Volume 2.  The Sheffield Area.  Edited by Eric Byne.  (Willmer Bros. 1951, 171 pp., 16 illustrations, 21 sketches, 9s.).  After reading the preface of this useful pocket guide, I can only wonder at the immense patience of those responsible for its publication after many misfortunes, including the destruction of the final proofs by enemy action.  They were lucky to have a climbing typist.  The clear photographs and diagrams and the large number of climbs des­cribed leave little to be desired.  A concise history of the climbs on Stanage Edge, and technical notes are included, and a useful map on page 115 shows the. positions of the various crags.

B.N.

JOURNAL OF THE CRAVEN POTHOLE CLUB 1949.  Con­gratulations to the C.P.C. on the first issue of their revived Journal, and on the excellent photographs; and good luck to them at Malham Moor.  They have our wholehearted agreement with their sentiments about indiscriminate “digging,” and about “litter louts.”  We our­selves feel very strongly about the habit of discarding clothing at the entrance to a cave; there was enough in the entrance to Sunset Hole last January to run a jumble sale.  Sydney Waterfall gives an interesting guide to 23 short climbs on Crookrise Crag, 2½ miles N. of Skipton.

H.G.W.

A PROGRESS IN MOUNTAINEERING : by J. H. B. Bell.  (Oliver & Boyd, 1950, 424 pp., 34 illustrations, 10 maps, 25s.)  This book is like the genuine mountaineer’s soup: there is a little bit of everything in it and the resulting brew is wholly satisfying, highly individual, and strongly reminiscent of a night in a mountain hut.

A quarter of the book deals with Technical instruction expounded with true Scots thoroughness.  The rest comprises short accounts of expeditions in two main sections – Scotland and the Alps.  The author’s enthusiasm for Scotland is contagious.  There is already a long heritage of Alpine literature, and it is to the exponent of mountaineering in Scotland that this book will make its main appeal.  Here he will find ideas for many new expeditions and memories of many old ones.  Scotland is recognised as offering far greater opportunities of real mountaineering than elsewhere in the British Isles and one soon realises from this book that it can stand comparison with the Alps and countries abroad.

It is a guarantee of excellence that the index has an entry “Roberts, Ernest E. 151-4, 207, 227-31 ” and members ma}’ note with interest that the majority of Englishmen whose names have crept into the book are Yorkshire Ramblers.

R.E.C.

WALKING IN THE ALPS : by J. Hubert Walker. (Oliver & Boyd, 1951, 274 pp., 33 illustrations, 13 sketch maps, 25s.)  The prospective Alpine walker who wishes to avoid the beaten tourist tracks will welcome this book.  The author possesses an intimate knowledge of the high Alps, knowledge born of strenuous and loving endeavour.  This know ledge has been most skilfully utilised to help those who wish to traverse the Alps in the “Walker” manner.

Those who have already journeyed in the Alpine regions above the snow line will welcome the book for the memories it arouses.  It is an eminently practical guide,for all climbers and walkers, and its usefulness is enhanced by the magnificent photographs and really excellent maps.

For those seeking to know something of the physical forces which gave rise to the Alps, the geological notes deal adequately with the subject without going into too much detail.

The book is a welcome addition to Alpine literature.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS : The Editor acknowledges with thanks the receipt of the following journals from Kindred Clubs :-

The Alpine Journal ; The Fell and Rock Club Journal ; The Rucksack Club Journal; The Wayfarers’ Journal; The Pinnacle Club Journal ; The British Ski Yearbook ; The Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal ; The Cairngorm Club Journal ; The Journal of the Mountain Club. S.A.; The Eastern Province Mountain Club Bulletin ; Cambridge Mountain­ eering ; Bristol University Speleological Society Journal ; The Journal of the Craven Pothole Club ; The Rotorua Tramper (N.Z.) ; Bulletins of the Speleological Society of America.

THE BRITISH SKI YEARBOOK, 1950.  Mr. Arnold Lunn has once again achieved what is now becoming almost an unattainable dream to the editors of most club journals – publication every year of a full-size well-printed, well illustrated and most interesting journal at a reason­ able price (10s.).

As usual the yearbook begins with a number of articles on ski-ing in remote and sometimes unexpected parts of the world.  From the Magic Carpet on Hampstead Heath we are taken to the High Atlas, where Colin Wyatt spent an arduous April week in the heights around 13,000 feet; to Roumania in a wartime winter spent between s the fleshpots of Bucharest and the snows of the Carpathians ; to Hokkaido, Japan, an island of heavy snowfalls, cold winds and hot springs in which the frozen skier can bathe on the way home ; to Iran, where H.I.M. the Shah is one of the most accomplished of skiers ; and so home to the Lammermuirs in the grim winter of 1947, where ski not only relieved the boredom of the long siege, but were often the only transport whereby the larder could be replenished.

Leslie Stephen’s commentary on “Whymper and the Matterhorn” will appeal to all mountaineers.  We appreciate his exhortation to modern writers on the Alps to bring to us the keen enjoyment of pure mountain air, and not to lard their articles with horrors and catastrophes.  (One notices among many older mountaineers when they get together a tendency to talk about “the occasion when old so-and-so fell off”).

A good deal of space is rightly devoted to Field Marshal Montgomery’s letter to “The Times” of 7th Feb. 1950, entitled “The Decadence of Ski-ing,” and deploring the modern tendency to concentrate on the “piste,” to the detriment of mountain ski-ing on soft snow and crust.

Much of the subsequent correspondence is published and Mr. Lunn tells of comments he had made to him personally in many parts of the Alps.  He sums up the situation in his “Review of the Year” by proving that mountain racing, as opposed to piste-racing, has not improved in the last twenty years.  The causes of the present preference for piste running seem to be mainly :

1. (1) Modern ski and bindings are designed for hard snow.
2. (2) Ski lifts and funiculars tempt skiers to run down quickly and do it again.
3. (3) All races are run on pistes.
4. (4) Short holidays cause skiers to seek the maximum of downhill running in the time.
5. (5) Modern fashion forbids theTelemark and such aids to progress over difficult country as stick-riding.

Mr. Lunn suggests that the official recognition of mountain racing might do something to check this decadence.

An interesting feature is ” A Digest of Ski-ing History ” covering the period from circa 550 A.D. to 1949. The equipment section deals with more and more rigid ski-bindings, and more and more efficient safety devices to pull them off ! H.G.W.

THIS MY VOYAGE : by Tom Longstaff (John Murray, 324 pp., 23 illustrations, 15 maps, 21s.).  Tom Longstaff has got a happy pen that transports you to the very region you are reading about.  You even rise from your armchair fatigued from mental participation in the same adventure. He does more, he actively spreads the virus of mountain­eering.  The book urges the uninitiated to get more out of life before it is too late, and to mountaineers it reveals further aspects of their craft.  It also belies the saying; “Youth would be all right if it came a little later in life.”  Longstaff’s activities stretch over a lifetime, and he makes the reflective remark: “When age shuts the door on high ascents, there is always the Arctic to turn to.”

Greenland, Spitzbergen, The Alps, The Rockies, The British Hills and the now forbidden Caucasus are all given their exciting due.  We are left perhaps wondering why some are so fortunate, but we are also left feeling grateful that we have with us a man whose writings can so lift us out of our environment.  The envy of a housewife will be roused by the recipe for a 3-course dinner in one pot, and maybe the suspicion of her husband also.  Mountaineers will appreciate the reproachful remarks regarding lost equipment after the party has descended 3,000 feet in less than a minute by way of an avalanche.

The heritage Longstaff so proudly carries on from his father he is ably passing on to us.  Few will fail to fall for the charm and clarity of the sentiments expressed, and perhaps a few more of us will be a little more susceptible to the grace that so enriches life, whether one is on “a little hill” or just at one’s daily task.

C.W.J.

A JOINT JOURNAL.  The suggestion is made by Mr. Douglas Milner, Hon. Editor of the Wayfarers’ Journal* that some of the northern clubs should produce a combined journal, thus making possible annual publication at a lower outlay for each club, and laying open a wider field for choice of the best articles and photographs.

Many of the older, and doubtless some of the younger, members of clubs which have preserved a rugged independence for half a century or more, will feel strongly opposed to such a suggestion, saying that storms have been weathered in the past and can surely be weathered again now.

But Mr. Milner’s idea, revolutionary though it may seem to many, is worthy of more than just passing consideration.  These are difficult days indeed, not only for editors, but even more so for treasurers of clubs like ours, where membership is not great, subscriptions are kept as low as possible, and the quality of the journal, as regards paper, print and illustration, is traditionally good.  But costs of all these things continue to rise, so that most club journals, even at the biennial interval at which most of them now appear, have to be sternly pruned, both as to reading matter and pictures.

We feel ourselves that a publication by any large number of northern clubs would be undesirable, since obviously the larger clubs would have a wider field from which to draw and the smaller ones might feel that their interests were not being adequately represented.

The kind of joint journal which might be visualised, and the possible production of which might at least occupy a few minutes’ discussion at Annual General Meetings, would, we think, be one jointly published by a small number of clubs of similar size and of kindred interests.  It is possible to imagine such a journal being produced yearly by the Wayfarers, the Rucksack Club and the Y.R.C., whose activities are in many ways similar and who frequently enjoy the hospitality of each others’ huts.

H.G.W.

*The Wayfarers’ Club Journal, 1950.