Biner_Leseprobe

These bits of evidence show that the analysis of the rope at the Matterhorn
Museum cannot clarify the question whether the rope broke, since it cannot
even be proven that it is the actual piece with the ruptured end. It was most
likely in Whymper’s possession.
For a long time, Whymper did not comment on the question whether the
rope broke or not, which gave the suspicions even more impetus. He
raised another question, however; one that also concluded in an accusation
against Peter Taugwalder Senior, even though the survivors most
definitely owed him their lives. The question was: why did Peter explicitly
use the thin rope? The accusation herein is that Peter intentionally used
the thin rope so the breaking of the rope would save him in case someone
in front of him slipped and fell. Whymper never actually said this out loud,
but he never repudiated it, either. This was a treacherous accusation, and
Peter Taugwalder suffered from it all his life, for he had no way of defending
himself. After the accident, he did explain to the investigating judge
why he used the thin rope, but the report was sealed and Peter did not
speak English. Furthermore, the use of ropes with that diameter was very
common at that time. Whymper himself said that he had also used such a
thin rope in other ascents.
There are some uncertainties regarding the ropes available for the descent.
For one, Whymper names three types of rope in his book: A solid Manila
rope, about 60m long; another rope of about 45m, not made of Manila
hemp but thicker than the first one; and the aforementioned thin rope, about
70m long. When describing the traverse to Zermatt, however, Whymper
talks about 4 ropes, which were temporarily stored at the Schwarzsee. It
goes to mention that the Manila rope supposedly consisted of two pieces
of 30m each. In any case, it is safe to assume that this is the situation
they were in at the time of the descent. When they were getting ready for
the descent, Whymper and Hudson determined the order: Croz went first,
followed by Hadow, Hudson and Douglas. Croz tied the 45m-long rope to
his knapsack, in case he needed it as an auxiliary rope in the descent.
Then, Croz roped up the first four comrades with a Manila rope, in intervals
of 6-7m, according to Whymper’s later account. In any case, this specific
rope was used and could not be applied anywhere else.
While on the summit, Whymper decided to make a sketch. He ordered that
young Peter stay with him and he kept the second Manila rope so both
of them could rope themselves up with it. This left Peter Senior with the
forth rope, which was the thin one. Additionally, he was not able to communicate
with anyone else but his son. He only spoke the Zermatt dialect,
42 The conquest of the Zermatt Mountains