Chapter II: Preface

Man’s heritage is great. There are the mountains; he may climb them. Mountaineering is a game second only to the greatest and best of all man’s games--life.

The War all but dried up the steady stream of youthful and enthusiastic devotees who kept alive and fresh the pursuit of mountain-craft. But fresh blood is as essential to the healthy life of mountaineering as it is to any other game, craft or pursuit, and, fortunately, there are cheerful signs that the after-effects of the War are fast becoming spent. Our youth is beginning to find the dancing floor, the tennis court and the playing fields of Great Britain too narrow, too lacking in scope, perhaps also a little bit too soft; and the craving grows for wider fields and a sterner, freer pastime.

It is primarily for the members of the younger generation that this book has been written, in the hopes that, by affording them a glimpse of the adventurous joys to be found in the mountains, they may be encouraged to take up and try for themselves the pursuit of mountaineering.

Portions of Chapters II and XVIII have appeared in the _Climber’s Club Journal_, Chapter VIII in the _British Ski Year Book_, and Chapters XIV and XVI in the _Alpine Journal_. Where not otherwise stated, the illustrations are from photographs by the Author.

In conclusion, I would like to thank Captain T. G. B. Forster for the loan of four photographs; Mr. A. B. Bryn for one photograph; Mr. R. H. K. Peto for the pen-and-ink sketch of the east face of Monte Rosa and the drawing of an ice-axe; my brother for Chapter VIII; and last, but not least, my wife for her contribution, Chapter XII, and for the tireless pains she has taken in assisting me with the preparation and correction of the manuscript and proofs.

I also wish to place on record my appreciation of what I owe to the inspiration and example of the _Alpine Journal_ and of Mr. Geoffrey Winthrop Young, and to the inspiring influence of Miss P. Broome.

10 GAINSBOROUGH MANSIONS,
LONDON, W.14,
_April, 1924_.

THE MAKING OF A MOUNTAINEER