High Life | 6 September 2008

Gstaad

‘Goblins and devils have long vanished from the Alps, and so many years have passed without any well-authenticated account of a discovery of a dragon that dragons too may be considered to have migrated.’ So the Alpine Club was informed in May 1877 by Mr Henry Gotch, the secre-tary, and the news set off great celebrations among sporty but superstitious Englishmen. The golden age of mountaineering, as it was then known, began in 1854 and ended with a bang around 1865, the year five Englishmen fell to their death climbing the Matterhorn. Among the dead was Lord Francis Douglas, whose older brother went after Oscar Wilde some 30 years later. A little known fact is that when the bodies were found, mostly shredded and unrecognisable after a fall of more than 4,000 feet, and brought down for burial, a young man by the name of Carson was in Zermatt following the gruesome proceedings. Carson was the QC the ghastly Queensberry chose to defend him against the playwright’s suicidal libel suit. Even more amazing was the presence of Alfred Wills, later Sir Alfred, the man who presided over the trial and the first to conquer the Wetterhorn in 1854. Today, any shyster lawyer would have got Oscar off on conflict of interest, mountain climbing, but those were more innocent days.

Many strange things happen in the mountains, and 20 minutes from where I live in Gstaad is the village of Diablerets, named after the devils inhabiting the surrounding gorges. Although the Alps today are the playground of the rich and ugly, only 200 years ago they were a wilderness of fear and superstition. Just above the pastures of Switzerland, it was believed dragons and ghosts existed, inhabiting the glaciers and snowy peaks.