Biner_Leseprobe

64. Would you like to add or amend anything in your statement?
I would like to add that, in order to gain better traction, I turned towards
the mountain. Since the rope between Whymper and me was lax, I was
fortunate enough to be able to wrap it around a boulder, which gave me
the strength necessary to save myself. Because the others fell, the rope
tying me to them was under such great strain that I sustained severe
injuries to the parts of my body where the rope was wrapped around
it; I am still in pain today.
For months, Taugwalder Senior suffered from the injuries caused by the
rope in the accident. The rumour that he had intentionally cut the rope destroyed
his life. The people of Zermatt always considered him to be innocent;
in the Alpine society, however, the suspicions lingered. He had no way
of defending himself against these wrongful accusations, so he simply swallowed
this injustice. For years, Whymper travelled the world as “conqueror
of the Matterhorn” and gave lectures. Taugwalder Senior, on the other hand,
withered away under the weight of the treacherous allegations. In 1874, he
emigrated to the United States of America and returned to Switzerland in
1878. No one knows what he had seen and done on the other side of the
Atlantic. In 1888, he was found in the chapel of Maria zum Schnee (‘Mary
of the Snow’), where he had died at the foot of ‘his’ mountain.
The Chapel Maria
zum Schnee. In 1888,
Peter Taugwalder
Senior was found
dead at the foot of
‘his’ mountain.
50 The conquest of the Zermatt Mountains