Lightning and Avalanche on Wetterhorn
The Englishman William Penhall was an accomplished mountaineer who made several first ascents in the Alps: The Zinalrothorn by the west face together with Martin Conway, and the the Dürrenhorn with A.F. Mummery just to mention two. In addition, The Penhall Couloir on the west face of the Matterhorn is named after him.
The 1st of August 1882 the 24 year old medical student Penhall and his friend F. J: Church met in Grindelwald. Their plan was to travel across the Bernese Alps to Zermatt together with the famous guides Andreas Maurer and Rudlof Kaufmann. Eager to get started Penhall suggested that he and Maurer should climb the 3707 meter high Wetterhorn directly from Grindelwald without an overnight sleep. It was snowing high on the mountain the coming days. One hour after midnight the 3rd of August they left the Bear Hotel and disappeared into the black night. Getting higher and higher up the Upper Grindelwald glacier we can assume that they talked about the experiences they had had in the mountains; Maurer of his ascent of Aiguille Verte and Penhall of his race with Mummery to be the first to climb the Zmutt ridge of the Matterhorn.
The climbers were expected back in Grindelwald the same afternoon. When they had not returned by nightfall anxiety was spreading among their friends. Next morning a group set out to search for missing men. Crevasses were explored as they travelled the glacier but nothing was found. Coming to the small Gleckstein Hut belongings of the missing were found. Through binoculars tracks in the snow leading up from the hut could be seen. They mysteriously disappeared higher up. The terrible truth was that Penhall and Maurer had been hit by an avalanche in the Krinn couloir close to the ridge called the Willsgrat. In the evening the bodies arrived down in the valley wrapped in sacking and lashed to poles.
On the morning of August 20, 1902 a funeral procession with two coffins went from the church in Grindelwald to the railway station. The Scotsman James Brown and the guide Solomon Knubel were out on their last journey. Both men had plunged to death on the Wetterhorn four days earlier.
Scarcely had they been loaded on the train when a terrible storm broke out. The lightning struck in several places, also on the summit of the Wetterhorn. This had been of no significance if there had been no people on the summit. The two Irish brothers Robert and Henry Fearon and the two mountain guides Samuel Brawand and Fritz Bohren was resting on the summit when the four were struck and killed by lightning.
When the four men did not return to the village that night, there was some concern but nobody wanted to believe the worst. Two days later the awful truth was revealed. Robert Fearon and Samuel Brawand was found dead roped together and blackened by lightning at the very summit. Part of the steel in Brawand’s ice axe had melted and the shaft was split in half. The other two could not be found despite intensive searching. A month later on September 22, the two corpses were discovered in a hidden glacial crevasse further down the mountain. The beautiful mountain had once again shown its worst side.
In the aftermath it was suggested that they should not have attempted the climb when the weather turned threatening. However, the local storm must have developed very suddenly without warning. The four men were buried together in grave at the Grindelwald cemetery where the headstone tells the story. The remains of Samuel Brawand’s ice axe can be seen at the local Museum.
The 1st of August 1882 the 24 year old medical student Penhall and his friend F. J: Church met in Grindelwald. Their plan was to travel across the Bernese Alps to Zermatt together with the famous guides Andreas Maurer and Rudlof Kaufmann. Eager to get started Penhall suggested that he and Maurer should climb the 3707 meter high Wetterhorn directly from Grindelwald without an overnight sleep. It was snowing high on the mountain the coming days. One hour after midnight the 3rd of August they left the Bear Hotel and disappeared into the black night. Getting higher and higher up the Upper Grindelwald glacier we can assume that they talked about the experiences they had had in the mountains; Maurer of his ascent of Aiguille Verte and Penhall of his race with Mummery to be the first to climb the Zmutt ridge of the Matterhorn.
The climbers were expected back in Grindelwald the same afternoon. When they had not returned by nightfall anxiety was spreading among their friends. Next morning a group set out to search for missing men. Crevasses were explored as they travelled the glacier but nothing was found. Coming to the small Gleckstein Hut belongings of the missing were found. Through binoculars tracks in the snow leading up from the hut could be seen. They mysteriously disappeared higher up. The terrible truth was that Penhall and Maurer had been hit by an avalanche in the Krinn couloir close to the ridge called the Willsgrat. In the evening the bodies arrived down in the valley wrapped in sacking and lashed to poles.
On the morning of August 20, 1902 a funeral procession with two coffins went from the church in Grindelwald to the railway station. The Scotsman James Brown and the guide Solomon Knubel were out on their last journey. Both men had plunged to death on the Wetterhorn four days earlier.
Scarcely had they been loaded on the train when a terrible storm broke out. The lightning struck in several places, also on the summit of the Wetterhorn. This had been of no significance if there had been no people on the summit. The two Irish brothers Robert and Henry Fearon and the two mountain guides Samuel Brawand and Fritz Bohren was resting on the summit when the four were struck and killed by lightning.
When the four men did not return to the village that night, there was some concern but nobody wanted to believe the worst. Two days later the awful truth was revealed. Robert Fearon and Samuel Brawand was found dead roped together and blackened by lightning at the very summit. Part of the steel in Brawand’s ice axe had melted and the shaft was split in half. The other two could not be found despite intensive searching. A month later on September 22, the two corpses were discovered in a hidden glacial crevasse further down the mountain. The beautiful mountain had once again shown its worst side.
In the aftermath it was suggested that they should not have attempted the climb when the weather turned threatening. However, the local storm must have developed very suddenly without warning. The four men were buried together in grave at the Grindelwald cemetery where the headstone tells the story. The remains of Samuel Brawand’s ice axe can be seen at the local Museum.