Dogs
in the mountains:- sheep dogs, avalanche dogs, mountain breeds, first ascensionists
and record holders. Dog stories provide light relief in mountaineering
literature in modern times and in the more distant past the role of dogs
sheds light on human survival in harsh and marginal environments.
These small stories are for writers to quarry as needed.
Top Dogs
The best known dog was actually a bitch but Tschingel
was always called a dog by Christian Almer, guide to the American Prof.
W.A.B. Coolidge and his aunt Miss Brevoort in the so-called "golden age
"of Alpine exploration — 1860s to 1880s.
Like many early Alpinists Tschingel divided her
time between Oxford and the Alps but presumably regarded Grindelwald as
her birthplace. She was the gift of Almer to the young American academic
in 1868 but she was already known in climbing circles. She had been
bought for a few francs and had already climbed the Torrenthorn.
Her name came from the existing name of a peak she climbed early in her
career called the Tschingelhorn. She soon made the first canine ascent
of the Aletschhorn (4195m)and crossed the Monchjoch. Her ascent of
Mont Blanc in 1875 at the age of ten is also claimed as the first on four
legs another, slightly earlier, dog being disqualified through having accepted
a helping hand or rucksack, near the top. There was much rejoicing
in Chamonix where her return was marked by the firing of a cannon and she
held court lying on a sofa in the Hotel Couttet being visited by all the
guides in town. Her total of first ascents was eleven and she did
a total of 66 grandes courses. The first ascents were inscribed
on small silver medallions attached to her best leather collar and worn
on smart occasions. She had 34 pups.
In more recent times a dog called Pinkham made
many first ascents with W Putnam in Alaska and Yukon. Both dogs were proposed
for membership of the Alpine Club and the American Alpine Club. It
is said that Tschingl was rejected for the Alpine Club on the grounds of
gender.
Mallory´s
body found, Knoydart
rescued, Himalayan
glaciers-alarm grows, Everest
Forests-a Sherpa's view,
The
epic of Mt. Everest, The state of the world mountains, My first summer in Sierra
Poems
and Belles letters, The Yellow brick Road
- Polemic, Paradise fishing at Autannes, Traditional
Solar Science,Dogs
on high, Obituary, Esme Percy,
Web-sites for browsing
Prince
Sadruddin Aga Khan on sustainable mountain tourism
P.B.
Stone on mountains under pressure (general overeview of so-called Mountain
problematique
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