FIRST
ON THE ROPE’ Roger Frison-Roche. Perfect bound Paperback. 256
pages. Re-Published by Vertebrate. £8.99
Originally
published in 1942, when its author was living in Algiers, this is one
of a few climbing novels to have retained a wide readership, having
sold over 3million copies. Frison-Roche was born in Paris in 1906, of
Savoyard parents, but returned to their roots, to Chamonix where in
1930 he became the first none locally born mountaineer to become a
mountain guide. The Chamonix guides are one of the oldest such
professional bodies in the Alps formed in 1821, and a list of their
members since that date includes some of the best known names in
mountaineering history; Croz, Charlet, Simonds, Payot,
Lachenal,Terray,Rebuffat, and in the modern era Profit, Renault and
Gherson etc.
Frison-Roche
besides his climbing exploits had also always wanted be a writer, and
following the publication of some of his stories about being an
alpine guide he was offered work in Algeria first as a reporter, then
an editor. Whilst in that country he made several exploratory trips
to the Hoggar Mountains; but returned to Chamonix in 1943, joined the
Chasseur Alpin, and hooked up with the Maquis (The Underground
Resistance).
Climbing
themed novels are rarely successful either because they simply do not
sell, or their stories are less ‘true’ than the real life ones
such as to be found in books like ‘Touching the Void’, ‘The
Bond’ or ‘Into thin Air’ . Yet many climbers do decide to
tackle this difficult art form, and in the past everyone from Wilf
Noyce, Dougal Haston and Lucy Rees/ Al Harris took this on. But maybe
I am being too critical for five novels have so far won the
Boardman/Tasker literary award; ‘Climbers’ by M J Harrison, ‘Mer
De Glace’ by Alison Fell, ‘The Ascent’ by Jeff Long, ‘Hazard’s
Way’ by Roger Hubank and ‘The Fall’ by Simon Mawer of which the
first such ‘Climbers’ is for me the most outstanding read.
Although it does require a deep concentration due to its complex
story, but nonetheless it is a well observed tale of how climbers do
become obsessed by their alternative experiences ‘on the rocks’
ignoring life’s other responsibilities.
Within
the climbing novel field there are many genres, Sci-Fi, Horror,
Thriller etc but a one off was/is (still in print) ‘The ascent of
Rum Doodle’. Its author Yorkshireman Bill Bowman was not a
Himalayan mountaineer, but somehow he produced in 1956 the most
popular comical satire of expedition mountaineering ever penned. It
is known and read so widely abroad that a bar/restaurant in Kathmandu
is named ‘The Rum Doodle’ as is a mountain in Antarctica,
courtesy of the members of a 1959 Australian expedition to that
continent. There are Rum Doodle brand sleeping bags, a climbing
company and a Rock Band so named. It was even recommended in the list
‘1000 novels everyone must read’ by the Guardian.
But
here I would also like to note two novels that made it ‘BIG’ as
films, ‘The White Tower’ by James Ramsey Ullman and ‘The Eiger
Sanction’ by Trevenian (Professor Rodney Whitaker). Both were made
into blockbuster adventure movies, the first not long after the end
of the Second World War, redolent with racial stereotypes, and the
second in the 1970’s a sort of James Bond in the mountains, both of
which would now provide a struggle for the reader to accept their
institutional view of women as mere sex objects. However despite
serious failings both these novels do explore how the wilderness
experience often provides a test of human character?
‘FIRST
ON THE ROPE’ is a much more straightforward story, set in Chamonix
and the Mont Blanc Range in the 1920’s and the 1930’s, which must
have been a truly golden period in which to be climbing there. It
tells of the life of the Servettaz family, the father Jean is a long
standing, well known guide and his son Pierre who wishes to also
follow in his father’s profession, but who is being dissuaded from
this by his family who wish for him to become a Hotel manager. During
recent winters Jean has worked hard to improve his families living
conditions into a ‘Pension’, taking in paying guests which
hopefully will eventually provide hotel type accommodation to be
developed and administered by his son.
The
novels action is forever swiftly moving on, and with his knowledge of
a mountain guides life, set in the Mont Blanc Range, Frison-Roche
makes us understand the depth of tragedy and its ramifications that
besets the Servettaz family, when Jean whilst guiding an American
climber to the summit of Les Drus is struck dead by lightning on the
descent. His Porter (now in modern parlance an accompagnateur)
George, manages in the teeth of a storm to shepherd the client safely
down but suffers severe frostbite in doing so. A team of guides
assemble at the Charpoua hut to attempt to climb up and to retrieve
Jean’s body, but to no avail and they retreat. Pierre and his uncle
Joseph Ravant, a senior guide, join a second attempt to reach Jean’s
body, but refusing to turn round again despite the route being
totally out of condition, Pierre pushes into the lead ignoring the
advice of his seniors and he takes a huge fall and badly fractures
his skull. Resulting in him becoming the object of a full scale
rescue by his father’s friends and guides, his life saved by them
acting decisively and abandoning their attempts to reach Jean’s
body.
The
novel then moves on to six months later, the Guides have retrieved
Jean’s body but Pierre has been both physically and mentally
damaged by his accident, and now suffers from vertigo. Poor George
the Porter is in a nursing home in Geneva having lost all his toes,
and is learning to walk again in specially constructed short boots
(this is what happened to Louis Lachenal post the Annapurna
Expedition in 1950). As the spring approaches Pierre takes off by
himself up onto an easy climb on the Brevent Peaks. On which he
experiences a torrid time, suffering from vertigo and nearly falling
to his death, and this makes him begin to accept that he will never
be able to climb freely again.
There
is of course a love interest, an understanding young lady who tries
to do her best to comfort him, but he sinks into a black despair
spending his days and evenings drinking and keeping low company in
Chamonix’s lesser known bar districts. A welcome break means a come
together when their friends and families meet up as the cattle are
moved out and up onto the high Alps to graze for the summer. A time
of feasting, singing and a competition between the fighting cows of
the area.
George
returns to the fold from Geneva and he and Pierre meet with their
friends to celebrate his recovery. He surprises them all by
announcing he intends to become a guide despite his injuries, and
eventually he persuades Pierre to accompany him on some easy outcrop
climbs and short routes. Slowly his vertigo becomes less severe, and
subsequently they plan a major, but secret come back climb; ‘The
North Face of the Verte’. Leaving separately and meeting up on the
Grand Montets they bivouac near the foot of the route, and early the
next morning they set out. The crossing of the bergschrund almost
turns them round, but once onto the face they find that they can cut
steps and climb ice as well as before. Turning the cornice at the
head of the face is achieved by Pierre tunnelling through and they
then spend another night out on the descent before arriving at a
Refuge early in the morning. Much to the surprise of Pierre’s uncle
Joseph, who having reached the age of 60 years has been retired from
the Guide’s rota, and is now into his new profession of hut warden.
So
in the end all is happy ever after, Pierre has recovered his health
and will shortly marry, and George has shown he can manage major
climbs once more. Both can now begin their training to become
Chamonix guides. In the 1930’s to have been such must have been to
be acknowledged as an aristocrat of that profession. So ‘FIRST ON
THE ROPE’ is not a novel to search within for a meaning of life,
but it stands the test of time and its descriptions of life in the
Chamonix Valley and its environs in that era is obviously so true as
are the descriptions of the routes and mountain areas described in
the book. It is an easy read but truly worthwhile. I first read
‘Premier de Cordee’ in 1950 as a 14 year old and later met its
translator into English Janet Adam Smith, and as someone who tried to
read it in French I must observe she made an outstanding job of this
work.
I
think that a time travelling visitor to Chamonix now would find it so
different than it was in the 1920’s and 1930’s, for it is today a
24hour action town, a major ski resort and the Chamonix guides now
offer Hang Gliding, Wing Suit Flying, Snow Boarding, Mont Blanc Tours
besides classic Mountaineering, Skiing and Rock Climbing outings. I
have keen memories of friendships I made with some of the holders of
their carnet, first meeting Gaston Rebuffat at the foot of the West
Face of the Blatiere and he plying us with cake and coffee (well
laced with brandy), being with Lionel Terray in the Ardennes at
Christmas/ New Year time, at Bas Cuvier (Fontainbleau) with Alain
Gherson and climbing in the Peak with Andre Contamine. Frison-Roche
became a major figure in their world, as a Chief Guide and later
President of the UIAGM (The International representative body of
mountain guides), he died in December 1999.
Roger Frison-Roche: Image-Companie des Guides de Chamonix
Whilst
writing about climbing novels I cannot finish without a consideration
of ‘Mount Analogue’ published in 1952. This by French writer and
poet Rene Daumal is unlike any other mountaineering book that has
ever been published, of that I feel certain? It is unfinished at only
106 pages, but tells of assembling a team to find and climb a hidden
peak that reaches inexorably towards heaven. Harold Drasdo sent me
his copy urging me to read same and think on its meaning. You do not
need to do this with ‘FIRST ON THE ROPE’ but with ‘Mount
Analogue’, twenty climbers could read this book and everyone would
come up with a different view of what is its significance? I read it
as an allegory of man’s search for himself...... The motion picture
‘The Holy Mountain’ by Jodorowsky is based on the Mount Analogue
story. So I finish with recommending you to read ‘FIRST ON THE
ROPE’ whilst journeying to the mountains, and in your bivouac or a
tent in the Himalaya study Mount Analogue to try to find the meaning
to life?
Dennis
Gray:2019
