Alpinist - History

History

• Though it is unknown whether his intention was to reach a summit, "Ötzi the Iceman" ascended at least 3,210 metres (10,530 ft) in the Alps about 5,300 years ago. His remains were found at that altitude, preserved in a glacier.
• The first recorded mountain ascent in the Common Era is Roman Emperor Hadrian's ascent of Etna (3,350 m) to see the sun rise in 121.
• Peter III of Aragon climbed Canigou in the Pyrenees in the last quarter of the 13th century.
• The first ascent of the Popocatépetl (5,426 m in Mexico) was reported in 1289 by members of a local tribe (Tecanuapas)

• Jean Buridan climbed Mont Ventoux around 1316.
• The Italian poet Petrarch wrote that on April 26, 1336 he, together with his brother and two servants, climbed to the top of Mont Ventoux (1,909 m). His account of the trip was composed later as a letter to his friend Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro.
• The Rocciamelone (3,538 m) in the Italian Alps was climbed in 1358.
• In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, ascents were made of numerous high peaks in the Andes, for religious purposes by the citizens of the Inca Empire and their subjects. They constructed platforms, houses and altars on many summits and carried out sacrifices, including human sacrifices. The highest peak they are known for certain to have climbed is Llullaillaco (6,739 m). They may also have ascended the highest peak in the Andes, Aconcagua (6,962 m) as a sacrifice victim has been found at over 5,000 m on this peak.
• In 1492 the ascent of Mont Aiguille was made by order of Charles VIII of France. The Humanists of the 16th century adopted a new attitude towards mountains, but the disturbed state of Europe nipped in the bud the nascent mountaineering of the Zurich school.
• Leonardo da Vinci climbed to a snow-field in the neighborhood of Monte Rosa and made scientific observations.
• in 1573, Francesco De Marchi reached the summit of Gran Sasso (2912m) in central Italy.
• In 1642 Darby Field made the first recorded ascent of Mount Washington, then known as Agiocochook, in New Hampshire.
• Konrad Gesner and Josias Simmler of Zurich visited and described mountains, and made regular ascents. The use of ice axe and rope were locally invented at this time. No mountain expeditions of note are recorded in the 17th century.
• Richard Pococke and William Windham's historic visit to Chamonix was made in 1741, and set the trend for visiting glaciers.
• The first attempt to ascend Mont Blanc was made in 1775 by a party of natives. In 1786 Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat gained the summit for the first time. Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, the initiator of the first ascent followed next year.
• The Norwegian mountain climber, Jens Esmark was the first person to ascend Snøhetta in 1798, part of the Dovrefjell range in Southern Norway. The same year he led the first expedition to Bitihorn, a small mountain in the southernmost outskirts of Jotunheimen, Norway. In 1810 he was the first person to ascend Mount Gaustatoppen in Telemark, Norway.
• The Grossglockner was climbed in 1800, the Ortler in 1804, the Jungfrau in 1811, the Finsteraarhorn in 1812, and the Breithorn in 1813. Thereafter, tourists showed a tendency to climb, and the body of Alpine guides began to come into existence as a consequence.
• The British scientist, Sir John Herschel, makes an ascent in 1824 where on July 23 he carries out a barometric determination of the height of Mount Etna.
• Citlaltépetl (5720 m in Mexico) was first climbed in 1848 by F. Maynard & G. Reynolds.

• Systematic mountaineering, as a sport, is usually dated from Sir Alfred Wills's ascent of the Wetterhorn in 1854. The first ascent of Monte Rosa was made in 1855.
• The Alpine Club was founded in London in 1857, and was soon imitated in most European countries. Edward Whymper's ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 marked the close of the main period of Alpine conquest, the Golden age of alpinism, during which the craft of climbing was "invented" and "perfected", the body of professional guides formed and their traditions fixed.
• Passing to other ranges, the exploration of the Pyrenees was concurrent with that of the Alps. The Caucasus followed, mainly owing to the initiative of D. W. Freshfield; it was first visited by exploring climbers in 1868, and most of its great peaks were climbed by 1888.
• The Edelweiss Club Salzburg was founded in Salzburg in 1881. Eventually 3 of its members made the first ascent on two Eight-thousanders, Broad Peak (1957) and Dhaulagiri (1960).
• Trained climbers turned their attention to the mountains of North America in 1888, when the Rev. W. S. Green made an expedition to the Selkirk Mountains. From that time exploration has gone on apace, and many English and American climbing parties have surveyed most of the highest peaks; Pikes Peak (14,110 ft) having been climbed by Mr. E. James and party in 1820, and Mt. Saint Elias (18,008 ft) by the Duke of the Abruzzi and party in 1897. The exploration of the highest Andes was begun in 1879-1880, when Whymper climbed Chimborazo and explored the mountains of Ecuador. The Cordillera between Chile and Argentina was visited by Dr. Gussfeldt in 1883, who ascended Maipo (17,270 ft) and attempted Aconcagua (22,841 ft). That peak was first climbed by the Fitzgerald expedition in 1897.
• New Zealand's Southern Alps were first visited in 1882 by the Rev. W. S. Green, and shortly afterwards a New Zealand Alpine Club was founded, and by their activities the exploration of the range was pushed forward. In 1895, Major Edward Arthur Fitzgerald, made an important journey in this range. Tom Fyfe and party climbed Aoraki / Mount Cook on Christmas Day 1894, denying Fitzgerald the first ascent. Fitzgerald was en route from Britain with Swiss guide Matthias Zurbriggen to claim the peak. So piqued at being beaten to the top of Mount Cook, he refused to climb it and concentrated on other peaks in the area. Later in the trip Zurbriggen soloed Mount Cook up a ridge that now bears his name.
• Of the high African peaks, Mount Kilimanjaro was climbed in 1889 by Ludwig Purtscheller and Hans Meyer, Mt. Kenya in 1899 by Halford Mackinder, and a peak of Ruwenzori by H. J. Moore in 1900.
• The Asiatic mountains were initially surveyed on orders of the British Empire. In 1892 Sir William Martin Conway explored the Karakoram Himalaya, and climbed a peak of 23,000 ft (7,000 m) In 1895 Albert F. Mummery died while attempting Nanga Parbat, while in 1899 D. W. Freshfield took an expedition to the snowy regions of Sikkim. In 1899, 1903, 1906 and 1908 Mrs Fannie Bullock Workman made ascents in the Himalayas, including one of the Nun Kun peaks (23,300 ft). A number of Gurkha sepoys were trained as expert mountaineers by Major the Hon. C. G. Bruce, and a good deal of exploration was accomplished by them.
• The Sierra Club was founded by John Muir in San Francisco, California in 1892.
• The first mountains of the arctic region explored were those of Spitzbergen by Sir W. M. Conway's expeditions in 1896 and 1897.
• Aconcagua (22,831 feet), the highest peak of the Andes was first climbed in 1897 and the Grand Teton (13,747 feet)in North America's Rocky Mountains was ascended in 1898.
• The Italian Duke of the Abruzzi in 1897 made the first ascent on Mount Saint Elias (18,009 feet) which stands at the boundary of Alaska and Canada and in 1906 successfully climbed Margherita in the Ruwenzori group (16,795 feet) in East Africa.
• The Andes of Bolivia were first explored by Sir William Martin Conway in 1898. Chilean and Argentine expeditions revealed the structure of the southern Cordillera in the years 1885-1898. Conway visited the mountains of Tierra del Fuego.
• The Rucksack Club was founded in Manchester, England in 1902.
• The American Alpine Club was founded in 1902.
• In 1902, the Eckenstein-Crowley Expedition, led by mountaineer Oscar Eckenstein and author and occultist Aleister Crowley, was the first to attempt to scale Chogo Ri (now known as K2 in the west). They reached 22,000 feet (6,700 m) before turning back due to weather and other mishaps.
• In 1905, Aleister Crowley led the first expedition to Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. Four members of that party were killed in an avalanche. They probably turned back at around 6,500 metres (21,300 ft), though in his autobiography Crowley claimed they reached a world-record height of 25,000 feet (7,600 m).
• In 1913, a party including Hudson Stuck ascended Mount McKinley (20,320 feet) in Alaska, the highest peak in North America.
• A few Olympics in the 1920s included prizes for alpinism, but these were discontinued after World War II.
• The British made several attempts in the 1920s to climb Mount Everest. The first in 1921 was more of an exploratory expedition but the 1922 expedition reached 8,320 metres (27,300 ft) before being aborted on the third summit attempt after seven porters were killed in an avalanche. The 1924 expedition saw another height record achieved but still failed to reach the summit when George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared on the final attempt.
• 1938 saw the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger by Andreas Heckmair, Wiggerl Vorg, Fritz Kasparek and Heinrich Harrer. This route was feted as the "last great problem of the Alps" (one of several).
• The 1950s saw the first ascents of all the eight-thousanders but two, starting with Annapurna in 1950 by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal. The world's highest mountain (above mean sea level), Mount Everest (8,848 m) was first climbed on May 29, 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay from the south side in Nepal. Just a few months later, Hermann Buhl made the first ascent of Nanga Parbat (8,125 m), a siege style expedition culminating in a remarkable solo push for the summit, it's the only eight-thousander to be summited solo on the first ascent. K2 (8,611 m), the second highest peak in the world was first scaled in 1954 by Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni. In 1964, the final eight-thousander to be climbed was Shishapangma (8,013 m), the lowest of all the 8,000 metre peaks.
• 1973 - The first winter ascent of a seven-thousander, Noshaq, by Andrzej Zawada and Tadeusz Piotrowski.
• 1980 - The first winter ascent of an eight-thousander, Mount Everest, by Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy.