The Alps, the Swiss and the Britons

3 September 2021

Swiss mountain people could not believe their eyes and ears in 1850. British tourists sought well-paid guides and porters to go beyond the tree line.

Life in the mountains was hard. In the spring, they went up high into the mountains to graze the cattle at high altitudes. No one thought of going any further.

In contrast, Swiss scientists played a prominent role in Alpine science. Horace Benedict de Saussure (1740-1799) from Geneva is one of the best-known. The Mont Blanc was climbed in 1786 on his initiative. He is considered the (scientific) founder of Alpinism.

General Guillaume Henri Dufour (1787-1875), the commander of the Confederation in the Sonderbundskrieg (1847), published his famous Dufourkarte der Schweizer Alpen between 1845 and 1865.

Climbing was not an issue until 1850. It changed with the arrival of British tourists. The Alpine Club was founded in London in 1857. From then on, this sector of tourism also flourished. Mountain people were initially guides and porters. A close friendship often developed between the British and the Swiss, and within a few years, these mountaineers climbed to the highest peaks with the same enthusiasm.

In 1863, the Swiss Alpine Club, Schweizer Alpen-Club (SAC), was founded. By 1865, mountaineers had climbed all 4000 + mountains in just ten years.

Many British climbers had an aristocratic background and were academically, artistically, spiritually or literarily educated. It is therefore not surprising that there were many publications about the Alps and climbing. The public was enthusiastic, and there was a huge demand and interest in stories and information.

In the Alpine Club in London, all successful and unsuccessful climbs were meticulously recorded. These log books are online (www.alpine-club.org.uk).

It would be remiss to mention only certain people, except for John Ruskin (1819-1900), Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), the conquerors of the Matterhorn (1865), Edward Whymper (1840-1911) and Lucy Walker (1836-1916) as the first woman (Zermatt commemorates her with a statue consecrated in 2021).

No social activity without English humour, and in 1910 Graham Clifton Bingham (1859-1913) and George Henry Thompson (1853-1953) published ‘The Animals Alpine Club’, Animals of Standing in the Alps.

It was recently published in a German-language edition under the title ‘Alpenclub der Tiere’, with a translation by Dan Wiener (1961).

(Source: Schweizer Alpen-Club, www.sac-cas.ch; Graham Clifton Bingham, George Henry Thompson, ‘The Animals Alpine Club’, London 1910/ ‘Alpenclub der Tiere’, translation Dan Wiener, Zurich 2018).