Death in the Alps

High above the French village of Chamonix towers 15,781-ft. Mont Blanc, a permanent challenge to mountain climbers. Nearby is the even more difficult and dangerous crag, Aiguille du Fou (Fool's Needle), which only the more experienced mountaineers attempt. Last week Mont Blanc delivered up the bodies of four Spanish Alpinists who had disdained guides and paid with their lives. Two other lone climbers started up the rocky crag of Fool's Needle (11,487 ft.).

Tied together with a rope, the two reached a tiny ledge at 10,000 ft. and paused to rest. The weather changed and storms swept the mountain flanks. The temperature fell below freezing. They huddled together, miserable and scared on the uncomfortable ledge. As time passed, one of the pair, Frenchman Claude Chulliat, 25, decided to risk his way down; his companion, George Barbacki, 23, a Pole, refused to budge. Chulliat started down alone.

Two days later mountaineers discovered Chulliat's body in a 500-ft. abyss. They also heard faint cries of "Au secours," but saw no one. The mountaineers rushed back down to Chamonix to round up a rescue party. That afternoon the party discovered Barbacki still perched on his ledge. They could not reach him at once; the melting snows were sending rocks crashing down the mountainside.

Not until Barbacki had spent three days and nights on his ledge did the rescue party reach him. For 70 hours, with only a few ounces of honey to eat, he had clung to the ledge with frostbitten hands. Veteran Chamonix guides, who hauled Barbacki to safety, thought that Chulliat might have lived had the two men tried the descent roped together. Amateur Climber Barbacki merely said: "I guess I was lucky to stay where I was."

So far this year, 88 climbers have been killed on the mountains of France, Italy and Switzerland, one of the highest death tolls in Alpine history.

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