3-070-841 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. Edward Whymper, the dauntless mountain climber of the Andes, 1881. '...it will long be remembered that Mr. Whymper was one of the survivors of the terrible disaster on the Matterhorn...[He] has more recently devoted about a twelvemonth to the exploration of the Andes in South America, and has succeeded in reaching their highest summits...The height of Chimborazo, which he ascended first, was about 20,000 feet; and up to that time no one, so far as he could learn, had ascended higher than from 17,000 to 18,000 feet...Having at length reached what seemed to be the top, about a quarter to four in the afternoon, they had the mortification of finding that it was lower than another elevation. There was then no help for it but to make for the highest point, and they arrived upon it standing up like men, instead of grovelling as they had been doing for five hours like beasts. The wind was blowing at the rate of fifty miles an hour...and driving the snow before it...Mr. Whymper also described the ascent of Cotopaxi, and said that it was impossible to conceive a more amazing spectacle than that vast crater presented, illuminated as it was below with ruddy subterranean fires and above by a brilliant moon. The height of it was 19,550 ft.'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.