Monrouge is the mythical peak of the Red Mountains, many generations of hikers have frequented it since in 1873, Lord Herbert Holland, accompanied by local guide Frasquillo Chinchón, nailed the Union Jack to it. It was a slow climb because Holland, who had just returned from India, caught days of bad weather. He hailed and poured rain. They spent five days in the La Estanca shelter, eating grass-fed fallow deer and playing backgammon. The water was raging down the Balletón River and from the window they saw the fish that the current was carrying jumping. Then the sun rose, the eagles abandoned their nests on the cliff and, from the height, watched the climb of Lord Holland and Frasquillo Chinchón, with their joints somewhat stiff due to backgammon, and how they approached the Muño Flaínez glacier, which Seen from the air, he looked like a shiny, shaggy spaniel lying by the road. An intense cold froze the tips of Lord Holland’s mustaches. Using an ice ax, with the ropes surrounding their bodies, they scaled the Bonmatí pillar. It was the first time that a mountaineer had achieved it. Once at the summit, they took a swig of brandy from a canteen and hit the frozen granite with a cane tipped with an iron cap. Lord Holland tells this in a report to the Ancoats Arts and Sciences Society.
A Monrouge climb | Entertainment | The USA Print
