Century of Mountaineering (II): the conquest of the Matterhorn
Those first conquests of the highest peaks of the Alps were dotted with prodigious feats due to ignorance and the difficulties they faced the first climbers. Inexperience, fear to venture into places hitherto unknown-source of legends and dragons den altitude, cold, loneliness, cracks, avalanches and bivouac in the open, on glaciers hardly efficient equipment - and in times when it was colder than today - scaled those adventures became incomparably different to those now performed by modern climbers.
All first ascent, as we now know, requires an effort, physical and psychological, much higher than subsequent climbers need then repeat. The mountain or the route that formerly belonged, in those days much more, into a mysterious world, strange, inaccessible, suddenly becomes a concrete reality, is known and can unravel, vulnerable known and accessible.
It's time to fill in the blanks on the maps. Scans and multiply alpine activity
Initially, as I said, this development was very slow; for example the first climbs in Dolomites not begin until the mid-nineteenth century. Just that moment coincides with what has been called "the golden age" of mountaineering heroic or Victorian, which is usually set between 1855 and 1865, and starring, largely, by British climbers at that time have the financial means to undertake these trips to the Alps and undertake expeditions climbs that are authentic. After the Napoleonic Wars, with France defeated and the Spanish empire in decline, are the times of expansion and greater strength of the British Empire who, no competitors, has taken over the seas and come to dominate the world.
It's time to fill in the blanks on the maps. Scans and multiply alpine activity, both the quantity and the quality of climbs that are continuous. These are the times of the Reverend Charles Hudson, the Tyndall, T. S. Kennedy, A.W.Moore… and especially Edward Whymper that it would conduct numerous "firsts" and would go down in history as the winner of the Matterhorn. They are true because in these early teams are formed roped climbing with excellent local guides, as Almer, Payot, Ravanel, Croz, Carrel, Zurbriggen, King, Petigax the Burgener, among many others, that play a role in this first stage we might call discovery and conquest.
In those ten years would be scaled almost all virgin summits of the Alps by a relatively small number of determined and courageous
In those ten years would be scaled almost all virgin summits of the Alps by a relatively small number of determined and courageous. It is time they are born alpine societies, as the prestigious Alpine Club, shelters are built and mountaineering begins to develop rapidly. Knowledge about the mountains also wide by scientific studies as Agassiz or Tyndall among others, who regarded the Alps the greatest laboratory of nature, and where they study the geology of the mountains and glaciers. At that time it may be said that the Alps were actually English, Swiss instead, franceses o italianos. Very soon the ascents, with native guides, of the most famous peaks of the mountain range spread becoming common.
And, in this favorable environment, arrive at one of those moments that decide stellar mountaineering history. In the mid-nineteenth century almost all the highest peaks of the Alps had been promoted with one exception: Cervino, a mountain that becomes the symbol of inaccessibility. Two very different man, Carrel, a guide valdostano, and Whymper, a typical bourgeois Victorian era, despite being so different, share the courage, the passion and determination to climb the Matterhorn. It is a passion that unite, and oppose them, along numerous attempts. When, Finally!, in July 1865, most prestigious summit of the Alps yields to the expertise, the courage and tenacity of the mountaineers, though exact a terrible price, because in the tumble down four of the first climbers-opens in a new era.
The Matterhorn claimed a terrible price, because in the tumble down four of the first climbers
Since then it became known that any mountain could be promoted by high it was difficult or; only a matter of technical, will and perseverance.
With this momentum, and more rapidly from 1880, would develop a more sport of mountaineering, that would be led by great climbers and climbers as Emil Zsigmondy, Georg Winkler and other, which will begin to make new climbs oriented search that difficulty achieving the summit as has been happening until then.
Since then it became known that any mountain could be promoted by high it was difficult or
Later this trend would spread widely by large rock climbers, as Paul Preuss (a purist that it could be considered a forerunner of free climbing); Hans Dulfer (would extend climbing techniques that today still bears his name); Tita Piaz (the "Devil in the Dolomites") and many other, would carry out the first scaled considered extreme, some even solo, later followed by renowned mountaineers, and rock and ice, as Gervassutti, Welzembach the Comedians. Many of these climbers die very young, victims of his daring in the new scaled or fury warrior would be unleashed in Europe shortly after.
