| For many of us, coming to the conference was a very special event. And since 1 was one of three from America that met in Chamonix to climb together beforehand, I tell something about this. But to start, how did Alexander and de Rham first meet? Alexander told me (when he and 1 were at the Charpoua hut above Chamonix in 1933) how he and his guide Armand Charlet (the two already forming a famous team) were crossing the enormous rock tower, the Dru, from this same hut a few years before. They and another party crossed paths near the top; so since each had left a pair of ice axes at the glacier, they decided to pick up the other party's axes when they reached the glacier again. With all back at the hut, two of them discovered that they knew each other by name very well: Alexander and de Rham. 1 had had the great fortune to spend two years in school in Switzerland, in 1921-1923, including three summers. Besides learning French one year and German the next, I had essentially one subject of study: the Alps. The first of these years my next elder brother, Roger, was with me. We were very lucky in having an older boy, Boris Piccioni, quite experienced in climbing, in school with us; and in a neighboring school teacher, M. Ie Coultre, who was a professional guide also, inviting us all on three climbing trips, which included training in high alpine climbing. As a further consequence, nearly all my climbing has been without guides. In 1933 Alexander and I met for several fine climbs at Chamonix, then went on to Saas Fee for more climbing. We next went up to the Weisshorn hut, below the east side of the great Weisshorn, with the idea of trying an apparently unclimbed route, the E. ridge of the Schallihorn, a smaller peak just south of the Weisshorn. At the hut, there was Georges de Rham, with a friend Nicolet! They had just climbed the Weisshorn by the N. ridge and descended the E. ridge; tomorrow they would climb the E. ridge again, to descend the much more difficult S. ridge, the "Schalligrat." So we were all off early the next morning. Alexander and I found our ridge easier than expected, and never put on the rope during the ascent. (Near the top we found a bottle; it was apparently from a party traversing to the top part of the ridge in 1895.) The descent (now we were roped) was over the N. ridge and down to the Schallijoch (where we heard calls of greeting from the other party). The others watched our route going down the glacier, aiding their own descent, which was partly after dark. From this time on, de Rham and I often met during the summers, and did much fine climbing together. It seems that he was renowned in Switzerland as much for his climbing as for his mathematics. In the summer of 1939, my finest alpine climbing season, he and Daniel Bach and I crossed the Schallihorn by "our ridge" (now its third ascent), and went on to climb the "Rothorngrat" and Ober Gabelhorn (we having first climbed the Matterhorn). Georges' new "vibram"-soled boots were giving him trouble, so he stopped now, while Daniel and I returned to the Weisshorn hut and made a one-day traverse of the Weisshorn by the Schalligrat and N. ridge, closing the season. And imagine my surprise when, some years later, I bought a wonderful picture book "La Haute Route" of the high peaks, by Georges' friend Andre Roch, and saw the first picture in it: Daniel and I on the Schallihorn (taken by Georges)! To return to 1935: Alexander, Paul Smith and I met at Chamonix, climbed the Aiguille de Peigne together, then went on to further climbing; but the weather was turning bad, and we soon had to go on toward Moscow. (de Rham was already in Warsaw.) Alexander drove me to Berlin, and we took the night train from there. |
