So feared by the valley dwellers that they couldn't even bring
themselves to give the peaks a name - 'alp' was merely their word
for a high pasture - Europe's mightiest mountains were a terrifying
enigma until the late 18th century. Only then did scientists begin
dragging their barometers up the glaciers and ice walls, still
half-expecting to confront the dragons said to inhabit those
lonely, hostile summits. In their wake came the adventurers, and as
the author of Barrow's Boys, an account of 19th century British
Polar exploration, Fleming again demonstrates an indulgent fondness
for those who blundered cheerfully into the unknown, unprepared and
ill-equipped, fuelled only by what one Victorian critic called 'an
unhealthy craving for excitement'. Swiss professors hosting balls
on the glacier; whistling Englishmen in cricket flannels and 'light
boating attire' hauling crates of champagne up sheer rock faces;
aunts and nephews taking their dog for a walk that got out of hand
- Fleming's glee as he runs through an improbable cast list is
infectious. No less involving is the breathless relish with which
he describes the increasing recklessness of the ascents, as a
genuine spirit of enquiry dissolved into frenzied, nationalistic
peak-bagging. Scores of Englishmen toppled off the Matterhorn or
were pulped by avalanches, their awful deaths inspiring a spin-off
contest as pioneering glaciologists competed to predict when the
ice rivers would disgorge those eerily well-preserved remains. 'You
have made racecourses of the cathedrals of the earth,' wailed
Ruskin, but few listened. In a final burst of suicidal patriotism,
a dozen of Jitler's lemmings sacrificed themselves aiming for the
Alps' last prize, the Elger's north face. A rare combination of
impeccable research and page-turning effervescence, Fleming's
account of the nonchalant eccentrics who crossed Europe's final
frontier is an appropriate triumph of swashbuckling understatement.
Reviewed by Tim Moore. Editor's note: Tim Moore is the author of
Frost on my Moustache (Kirkus UK)
Full of eccentric characters, Killing Dragons is the story of the
first British mountaineers to tackle the Alpine summits of
Switzerland during the late eighteenth century. Originally the
explorers of this area were poorly equipped, wearing ordinary shoes
and no protective clothing. The British arrived intent on reaching
every Alpine summit, and 'mountaineering' was born. The title
refers to the mythical creatures said to inhabit these peaks: 'Here
be dragons,' said the old maps ...
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