Title page from How We Spent the Summer, or, A "Voyage en Zigzag" in Switzerland and Tyrol with Some Members of the Alpine Club
«Summer has arrived at last and conversations naturally gravitate towards everyone's summer travel plans. Some are venturing to the world's great capitals, some are making the most out of "staycations," and some are heading straight for the beach. Still others prefer the breathtaking views and fresh air that can only be experienced high up in the mountains. Such was the case over a century and a half ago, when a group from the newly formed Alpine Club headed south from London on a summer-long mountain adventure. They documented their travels with words and sketches in How We Spent the Summer, or, A "Voyage en Zigzag" in Switzerland and Tyrol with Some Members of the Alpine Club, a second edition of which is held in Watson Library's special collections.»
Left: Women from the Alpine Club don masks to protect themselves from the sun, since "complexions are a great source of anxiety." Right: "A doubtful footing"
The stories in this sketchbook are what you would expect from a group of travelers: funny or unfortunate events and the accommodations that they encountered over the course of the trip described in great detail.
Map of the Alpine Club's journey
The "zigzag" theme dominates the whole book. Not only does it describe where the travelers went, as the map above illustrates, it also impacts the smallest details. For example, the ends of some letters trail off in squiggly lines.
Scenes from a summit climb
Just as the travelers went back and forth haphazardly across the landscape, the sketches that document their trip are scattered across the page, and each picture is numbered, which allows the reader to follow their progress. The page illustrated above, representing one of the steepest climbs the travelers made, recreates the dramatic change in altitude: number eight, in the bottom left corner of the page, shows the mountaineers resting at a lower summit; number ten, in the upper right corner, represents the peak of the mountain—and the page; and number eleven, which portrays "The Descent," appears directly underneath ten and shows a vertical drop.
Left: Managing a steep drop. Right: Crossing a crevasse. Full caption reads "It is not absolutely necessary to master the tight rope before joining the Alpine Club," but it does seem like it would have been a pretty handy skill.
Modern-day climbers might appreciate the advances in technology and techniques that the last one hundred and fifty years have brought, while at the same time admiring how truly intrepid these early Alpine Club members were. No one but a Flying Wallenda would likely attempt the stunts illustrated here anymore.
Left: "Davos Am Platz" in the 1860s. Right: Davos today. Notice that the little church in the sketch still stands, while the rest of the valley has been transformed. Photo by Andy Mettler, copyright World Economic Forum. Used under the Creative Commons license
One of the last stops on the Zigzag voyage was a bucolic valley labeled "Davos am Platz." A little Internet sleuthing proved that this is indeed "the" Davos—home of the annual World Economic Forum and one of Switzerland's largest ski resorts. We can only imagine what our Alpine Club travelers would think of the world's political and economic elite descending on this once quiet landscape, but we can be sure they would leave us with some very entertaining sketches.