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- Mont-aux-Sources, two French missionaries, and the ascent that never happened
Mont-aux-Sources, two French missionaries, and the ascent that never happened
20 May 2014 20:53 #72270
by thomas
Dramatic enough....
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In climbing parlance the rewards of the summit assault and final steps ‘into thin air’ are mentally satisfying and hopefully visually pleasing, moreover if the climb is a first ascent and establishes itself in august written testimony. Consider this pioneering triumph after a long slog through unknown territory:
Strange echoes were heard in April 1836 as two devout French missionaries . . . . T. Arbousset and F. Daumas stood at the edge of the [Drakensberg] Escarpment and looked down in utter amazement as they watched the waters of the Tugela crashing down to the gorge below. Realizing the geographic importance of the mountain, they named it Mont-aux-Sources.(Dodds, 1975, p 20)
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