Edward Whymper (1840–1911)

Edward Whymper’s Scrambles Amongst the Alps isn’t ideal for readers who insist that adventure stories be quickly paced. The author brings detailed engagement to his narratives along with digressions on topics in geology, glaciology, medical sociology, civil engineering, etc. The core material describes his many ascents of alpine peaks and he displays a surprisingly appreciative sense of absurd events and details for a fellow advertised elsewhere as a dour Englishman. A great quality of the text is that Whymper, an artist and engraver, supplied the numerous hand-drawn illustrations.

The volume I read was prepared for the National Geographic Adventure Classics series. Curiously, the dramatic cover illustration is of the Dent Blanche and not the Matterhorn, the latter of which made Whymper famous and controversial. Whymper addresses those controversies at length. How satisfactorily he does will be matter for varying opinion, particularly for anyone adhering to Reinhold Messner’s interpretation of the event in Fall of Heaven: Whymper’s Tragic Matterhorn Climb (I do not). This edition has many footnotes from Whymper not in the original. They supplement the text well and on rare occasion caused me to question the author’s strict veracity, giving them that little extra bit of tang.… (mere)

En 1860, un joven grabador londinense recibe el encargo de ilustrar un libro sobre los Alpes. Viaja a Suiza y en Zermatt ve por primera vez el monte Cervino, una perfecta pirámide de roca que se eleva en el confín entre Suiza e Italia, y cuya cumbre en aquel momento todavía permance inescalada.

El encuentro con la impresionante montaña cambiará el rumbo de su vida: a partir de este momento Edward Whymper emprende una lucha por conquistar la inaccesible cima. Escala intensamente en los Alpes, consiguiendo numerosas primeras ascensiones a algunos de los picos emblemáticos: Pointe des Ecrins, Dent Blanche o Aiguille Verte.

Así Whymper se convierte en uno de los mejores alpinistas de su época, predestinado a cambiar el rumbo de la historia del montañismo. Después de numerosos intentos, el 14 de julio de 1865, llega finalmente a la cima del Cervino junto con seis compañeros. Lamentablemente, la gran victoria se ve empañada por un trágico accidente: durante el descenso un desafortunado resbalón desemboca en la rotura de una cuerda y cuatro hombres se precipitan al abismo de la temible cara norte. Whymper y dos guías escapan milagrosamente a la muerte.

En 1871 Whymper publica en Londres Scrambles amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-1869, una extensa crónica de sus hazañas alpinas, de la cual este libro extrae todos los fragmentos relativos a la conquista del Cervino. Ilustrado con magníficos grabados del famoso alpinista, es un clásico absoluto de la literatura alpina y un volumen indispensable en la biblioteca de cualquier montañero.… (mere)

Whymper's book about some of his first ascents of peaks in the Alps, including the first ascent of the famed Matterhorn alternates between really fascinating and dry. His curmudgeonly character frequently causes him to underplay the difficulties of his ascents and some of the stories suffer from that. His tragic climb of the Matterhorn, where a majority of his companions died, is the best story of the book and he makes you wait for until the end. There are several chapters that focus on the geology of the region and this is where the book really dragged for me -- more because I'm interested in mountaineering history rather than the make up of the mountains themselves. I'm glad I read this historical account, but it isn't one I'd ever pick up to read again.… (mere)