De la renaissance au XIX siècle
Le xvII siècle…
… Affranchi les cimes de la superstition qui les entachent. La culture et l’art font perdre à la montagne son caractère de désordre et de maléfice, aidés en cela par la pensée orientale.
Mais déjà, vers le milieu du siècle précédent (en 1552), François de Candale avait fait l’ascension du pic du Midi d’Ossau.
En 1627, Charles-Emmanuel Ier, duc de Savoie, institue un corps militaire pour guider et secourir les voyageurs qui empruntent le col du Grand-Saint-Bernard. On voit ainsi naître l’ancêtre des sociétés de guides qui verront le jour, dès le début du XIXe siècle, dans plusieurs stations touristiques.
Entre la fin du xvII et le début du xIx siècle
Gens de lettres, aristocrates et naturalistes se mettent en route à travers les Alpes à la découverte de régions inexplorées.
Rappelons toutefois, que les premiers à gravir les cimes ne furent ni les poètes ni les écrivains mais les hommes de science pour lesquels la montagne se présentait comme un vaste laboratoire naturel.
Il est incontestable, cependant, que l’ambition d’atteindre des cimes où personne n’était encore parvenu, remplace progressivement l’intérêt scientifique. Peu à peu, les pionniers laissent de côté les instruments de mesure et se consacrent presque exclusivement à la conquête des sommets.
Rappelons: l’ascension du Buet en 1770, celle du Mont Vélan en 1779 et celle du plus haut sommet des Alpes en 1786 par Jacques Balmat dit « Mont-blanc ». C’est ainsi que commence alors une période pendant laquelle la conquête est une fin en soi.
C’est ainsi que naît l’alpinisme, tandis qu’en Angleterre se mettent en place les structures de la révolution industrielle et qu’en France se structurent les idées qui aboutiront à la Révolution tout court. C’est d’Angleterre que viendront les premiers alpinistes. Issus d’une bourgeoisie active et entreprenante, ils viennent dans les Alpes puiser dans les risques de l’escalade une vigueur nouvelle, fidèles, en ce sens, à l’éthique puritaine de l’action.
Pendant la période qui va de la conquête du Mont-Blanc à celle du Cervin par Edward Whymper en 1865, les cimes les plus importantes de l’arc alpin sont foulées.
Les alpinistes anglais s’imposent de façon évidente. Ils ont pour nom, Whymper, Coolidge, et plus tard Mummery pour ne citer que les plus connus. Ils sont accompagnés, entre autres, par Christian Almer et Melchior Anderegg, les premiers Suisses à avoir obtenu une licence de guide en 1865.
Le British Alpine Club est fondé en 1857 suivit par l’O.A.V en 1862, le C.A.S. et le C.A.I. en 1863 et enfin le C.A.F. en 1874.
Edité à partir de 1859, « Peaks, Passes and Glaciers » fut le premier guide, et « The Playground of Europe » (1871) de Leslie Stephen, le premier livre de montagne.
Vers la fin du xix siècle
Allemands et Autrichiens font une entrée remarquée sur la scène de l’alpinisme naissant. La plupart de ces grimpeurs viennent des classes moyennes et populaires. Ils trouvent dans ce sport un moyen d’échapper aux contraintes du travail en usine. Au désir de conquête se substitue la quête de l’aventure et du risque. C’est la première grande révolution idéologique survenue dans l’alpinisme.
Cette recherche de l’aventure et du risque est la conséquence de la culture romantique qui se répand en Europe dès la fin du XVIIIe siècle. L’exaltation du risque inutile comme moyen de s’affirmer, fera naître et se développer l’escalade libre qui atteindra, durant le premier quart du XXe siècle, les plus hauts sommets du style et de l’audace. On considère cette période comme l’âge d’or de l’escalade acrobatique.
Paul Preuss (1886 – 1913) apparaît comme le chef de file de cet alpinisme héroïque qui a fait « succomber », sous son charme et parfois aussi par sa témérité, des hommes tels que von Barth, Lammer, Purtscheller et Zsigmondy.
Cependant, les alpinistes de cette époque n’adhérent pas tous à cette philosophie postromantique du surhomme. Hans Dülfer (1892 – 1915) et Fiechtl, ainsi que les italiens Piaz, Dimai et Rey, sont, parmi d’autres, les plus fervents défenseurs d’un alpinisme plus humain. Ils introduisent dans l’escalade la conception de l’assurage, et démontrent par là que la sécurité n’enlève rien à l’exploit technique.
C’est également l’époque pendant laquelle s’illustre G.W.Young, et la deuxième génération des guides suisses dont Joseph Knubel, Alexandre Burgener et Franz Lochmatter.
From the Renaissance to the 19th century
the 17th century
Freeing the peaks from the superstition that taints them. Culture and art, aided by oriental thought, are making the mountains lose their character of disorder and evil.
But François de Candale had already climbed the Pic du Midi d’Ossau around the middle of the previous century (in 1552).
In 1627, Charles-Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, set up a military corps to guide and rescue travellers over the Great St Bernard Pass. This was the forerunner of the guide companies that were to spring up in several tourist resorts from the early 19th century onwards.
Between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century
Men of letters, aristocrats and naturalists set off across the Alps to discover unexplored regions.
It should be remembered, however, that the first to climb the peaks were not poets or writers, but men of science, for whom the mountains were a vast natural laboratory.
It is undeniable, however, that the ambition to reach summits where no one had yet reached, gradually replaced scientific interest. Little by little, the pioneers set aside their measuring instruments and devoted themselves almost exclusively to conquering the summits.
These included the ascent of Le Buet in 1770, Mont Vélan in 1779 and the highest peak in the Alps in 1786 by Jacques Balmat, known as « Mont-Blanc ». This marked the beginning of a period during which the conquest was an end in itself.
This was the birthplace of mountaineering, while in England the structures of the Industrial Revolution were being put in place and in France the ideas that would lead to the Revolution were taking shape. It was from England that the first mountaineers came. Coming from an active and enterprising middle class, they came to the Alps to draw new strength from the risks of climbing, faithful, in this sense, to the Puritan ethic of action.
During the period between the conquest of Mont Blanc and that of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper in 1865, the most important peaks in the Alpine arc were climbed.
English mountaineers were the obvious leaders. Their names were Whymper, Coolidge and later Mummery, to name only the best known. They were accompanied, among others, by Christian Almer and Melchior Anderegg, the first Swiss to obtain a guide’s licence in 1865.
The British Alpine Club was founded in 1857, followed by the O.A.V. in 1862, the S.A.C. and the C.A.I. in 1863 and finally the C.A.F. in 1874.
Published from 1859 onwards, « Peaks, Passes and Glaciers » was the first guidebook, and Leslie Stephen’s « The Playground of Europe » (1871) was the first mountain book.
Towards the end of the 19th century
Germans and Austrians made a remarkable entry onto the nascent mountaineering scene. Most of these climbers came from the middle and working classes. They found the sport a way of escaping the constraints of factory work. The desire for conquest was replaced by a quest for adventure and risk. This was the first major ideological revolution in mountaineering.
This quest for adventure and risk was a consequence of the Romantic culture that spread across Europe from the end of the 18th century. The exaltation of unnecessary risk as a means of asserting oneself gave rise to free climbing, which reached the highest heights of style and daring in the first quarter of the twentieth century. This period is considered to be the golden age of acrobatic climbing.
Paul Preuss (1886 – 1913) stands out as the leader of this heroic form of mountaineering, which made men such as von Barth, Lammer, Purtscheller and Zsigmondy « succumb » to its charms and, at times, its temerity.
However, not all the mountaineers of this period adhered to this post-Romantic philosophy of the superman. Hans Dülfer (1892 – 1915) and Fiechtl, along with the Italians Piaz, Dimai and Rey, were among the most fervent advocates of a more humane form of mountaineering. They introduced the belay concept to climbing, demonstrating that safety was no less important than technical achievement.
This was also the period when G.W. Young and the second generation of Swiss guides, including Joseph Knubel, Alexandre Burgener and Franz Lochmatter, made their name.
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