Biner_Leseprobe

ope explicitly for the first time, and his estimate of the distance between
Peter Taugwalder and the rupture was at 2.5m. In this version, he talked
about the boulder which Peter Taugwalder said to have used to fixate the
lax part of the rope. In Whymper’s account, Peter Taugwalder held on to
the boulder with his bare hands.
Peter Taugwalder was at the mercy of the pull of four falling bodies; how
could he have taken out a pocket knife, opened the blade and cut the
hemp rope at a distance of 2.5m, and all of that while under the strain of
four bodies hanging from said rope? Those who consider this hypothesis
to be likely are more than welcome to demonstrate it at the original site
of the accident, namely the north face of the Matterhorn, and with the
original equipment: with hobnailed mountain boots. Back then, they did
not yet have Tricouni boots, which later were considered modern.
Peter Taugwalder Senior declared in the accident report that the mountaineers
could have been saved if their fall was stopped. When the judge
asked him whether the accident could have been prevented, he said that
if the rope had not broken, he and Croz would have been able to pull the
others back up.
Douglas Hadow’s shoe. It was
extremely difficult to move
across the steep and smooth
north face with these shoes,
without crampons. Today,
no one would even remotely
consider climbing this way.
40 The conquest of the Zermatt Mountains