From the Tongue of the Glacier
When Dr. Hamel, a councillor to Alexander the First, arrived in Chamonix in 1820 thirty-four years had passed since Paccard and Balmat had climbed Mont Blanc for the first time. Since then fourteen parties had reached the summit without any accidents. The Russian Hamel’s reason for attempting to climb Mont Blanc was to test scientific apparatus at high altitude together with M. Selligue, an optician from Geneva.
On August 18 a total of sixteen persons including two Oxford undergraduates and twelve local guides made their way up to Grand Mulets. Stormy weather made them stay in their camp for two days. On the third day Selligue and two guides gave up and went down while the rest started for the summit. As they approached the Rochers Rouges, the snow under Hamel’s feet started to give away. The next moment the whole party was carried downwards in an avalanche. Continuing for 400 meters the avalanche ended pouring down into a big crevasse. Three men, the guides Pierre Balmat, Pier Carrier and Auguste Tairraz, fell into the crevasse. Searching was useless and they were considered lost for ever.
Forty years later the Bossons Glacier began to throw out strange things like fragments of clothing, expedition material and above all human remains. A skull with hair, an arm, a hand, a foot and more emerged from the tongue of the glacier. Joseph-Marie Couttet, one of the surviving guides now in his seventies, could identify each object and said in the police report: “I never thought that I once more should grasp my old friend Pierre Balmat’s hand”. The poor men had during forty years travelled ten kilometrers from the crevasse where they vanished to the end of the glacier.
In 1866, about at the time the Bossons Glacier was spitting out human relics, the Englishman Henry Arkwright arrived in Chamonix together with his mother and two sisters. Despite the lateness of the season he decided to try to climb the Mont Blanc. On the evening October 12 he was sitting together with his sister outside the Grand Mulets hut. A Bengal light was fired to signal their arrival to the hut. Henry’s younger sister had been allowed to accompany him up the Bossons Glacier as far as to the hut. The party included the experienced Chamonix guide Michel Simond and the two porters Francois and Joseph Tournier.
At daybreak two parties left the hut at 3051 m with 1800 vertical meters remaining to the summit of Mont Blanc. The first was Henry and his three men, and the second the hut warden Sylvain Couttet and a friend. After traversing the Grand Plateau they stopped to have breakfast together and to discuss which route to take. Should they use the Ancien Passage taken by Balmat and Paccard on the first ascent in 1786? The alternative was the longer Corridor discovered in 1827. To gain two hours they chose to take the Ancien Passage even if it was more dangerous with steep snow, crevasses and rising cornices.
The men had been walking only a short time when a crack was heard above. Blocks of ice came rushing down. When things began to clear Henry and his men were dead while Couttet and his friend miraculously survived. All the dead were found except for Henry. After days of searching a new avalanche covered the area where the accident took place and Henry was never found. Almost.
In the summer 1897 the Arkwright family received a telegram that simply read; “The remains of Henry Arkwright from 1866 have been found”. After 31 years (sic!) he had emerged from the tongue of the Bossons Glacier. The head and the feet were missing but there was no doubt of his identity since a handkerchief with his name was found in his waistcoat pocket.
On August 18 a total of sixteen persons including two Oxford undergraduates and twelve local guides made their way up to Grand Mulets. Stormy weather made them stay in their camp for two days. On the third day Selligue and two guides gave up and went down while the rest started for the summit. As they approached the Rochers Rouges, the snow under Hamel’s feet started to give away. The next moment the whole party was carried downwards in an avalanche. Continuing for 400 meters the avalanche ended pouring down into a big crevasse. Three men, the guides Pierre Balmat, Pier Carrier and Auguste Tairraz, fell into the crevasse. Searching was useless and they were considered lost for ever.
Forty years later the Bossons Glacier began to throw out strange things like fragments of clothing, expedition material and above all human remains. A skull with hair, an arm, a hand, a foot and more emerged from the tongue of the glacier. Joseph-Marie Couttet, one of the surviving guides now in his seventies, could identify each object and said in the police report: “I never thought that I once more should grasp my old friend Pierre Balmat’s hand”. The poor men had during forty years travelled ten kilometrers from the crevasse where they vanished to the end of the glacier.
In 1866, about at the time the Bossons Glacier was spitting out human relics, the Englishman Henry Arkwright arrived in Chamonix together with his mother and two sisters. Despite the lateness of the season he decided to try to climb the Mont Blanc. On the evening October 12 he was sitting together with his sister outside the Grand Mulets hut. A Bengal light was fired to signal their arrival to the hut. Henry’s younger sister had been allowed to accompany him up the Bossons Glacier as far as to the hut. The party included the experienced Chamonix guide Michel Simond and the two porters Francois and Joseph Tournier.
At daybreak two parties left the hut at 3051 m with 1800 vertical meters remaining to the summit of Mont Blanc. The first was Henry and his three men, and the second the hut warden Sylvain Couttet and a friend. After traversing the Grand Plateau they stopped to have breakfast together and to discuss which route to take. Should they use the Ancien Passage taken by Balmat and Paccard on the first ascent in 1786? The alternative was the longer Corridor discovered in 1827. To gain two hours they chose to take the Ancien Passage even if it was more dangerous with steep snow, crevasses and rising cornices.
The men had been walking only a short time when a crack was heard above. Blocks of ice came rushing down. When things began to clear Henry and his men were dead while Couttet and his friend miraculously survived. All the dead were found except for Henry. After days of searching a new avalanche covered the area where the accident took place and Henry was never found. Almost.
In the summer 1897 the Arkwright family received a telegram that simply read; “The remains of Henry Arkwright from 1866 have been found”. After 31 years (sic!) he had emerged from the tongue of the Bossons Glacier. The head and the feet were missing but there was no doubt of his identity since a handkerchief with his name was found in his waistcoat pocket.