Banner in the Sky, by James Ramsey Ullman
Josef Matt died trying to conquer the Citadel. After Josef’s death, Frau Matt vows that her son will never set foot on the mountain.
Sixteen-year-old Rudi Matt works at the Beau Site Hotel. Frau Matt hopes her son will find his job so fulfilling that he has no interest in climbing the dangerous mountain. Not deterred by his father’s death, Rudi dreams of becoming a guide just like his father. He knows that the Citadel can be climbed even though no one has attempted it since Josef Matt’s death.
On the days when the mountain’s allure becomes too strong, he leaves his dishwashing chores at the hotel, grabs his stick from its hiding place, and climbs to the Citadel’s blue glacier. From there, he studies the cliffs and peaks. On one of Rudi’s explorations, he rescues Captain John Winter from a crevasse.
Captain Winter hires Rudi’s uncle, Franz Lerner, to guide him on a climb up the Wunderhorn so that he can look at the Citadel’s higher reaches. Rudi goes along, but his eagerness causes him to fall, and the other men must carry him down the steep slope. Franz refuses to take Rudi again. He also refuses to guide Captain Winter on his assault of the Citadel.
Then, Winter hires Emil Saxo from the rival town of Broli as his guide, and Rudi runs away to join Captain Winter on the Citadel’s glacier. Rudi lies to Captain Winter telling him that his mother and uncle relented and agreed that he could join the captain. When Uncle Franz and other men from town find Rudi missing, they climb to the hut where the mountain climbers are staying. They discover that Rudi has left the group to climb the Citadel on his own.
(Additional Information: The Citadel is a fictional name for the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps. Disney’s movie entitled “Third Man on the Mountain” is based on this book.)
