The Ascent of the Ortler in July 1838

Appendix.

The Recent Ascent of the Ortler.

On 21 July of this year, postmaster Andreas Tschiggfrey of Prad, the 16-year-old Maria, daughter of innkeeper Alois Karner, Anselm and Andreas Führer, Anton Ortler of Gomagoi, and finally Johann Bruner of Sulden climbed the Ortler. The latter served as a guide, having already accompanied the surveyor Schedelka there in 1826. Between evening and morning, they took a total of 8 hours, facing great hardships and nearly mortal dangers. Among other sights, they also came upon a natural ice chapel of such dimensions that 30 to 40 people would have had room inside. The route led across avalanches, ice fields, and rock faces, and only with ropes were they able to traverse steep mountain ravines or glacier crevasses. Now over scree, now over sheets of ice and snowfields, they advanced toward their gigantic goal, near which they still encountered the foundation walls of the Gebhard pyramid erected in 1802. Wind and cold permitted a stay at the summit of only just over a quarter of an hour; the view is said to be boundless.