Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141816 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
Scrambles Amongst the Alps describes nine years Whymper spent climbing in the Alps, from 1860 to 1869, a time when mountain climbing was just starting to become an international sport getting international headlines. Whymper was a prodigious climber; he once gained 100,000 feet of altitude in the mountains in something like 30 days, attacking peaks with an energy and determination that remain remarkable to this day. But the big kahuna was the Matterhorn, and the book spends much of its time on Whymper's seven failed attempts at it, and on the eighth, in which he summited, and four men died. The book makes an excellent guide on this account to the history of early climbing and climbing techniques.

Customer Reviews

An amazing Victorian
Since I am interested both in mountaineering and in things Victorian, this book was perfect for me. Whymper wrote with a typically British understatement and wry amusement. It is a style of writing that you either love or hate: I love it. He was not only a pioneer of mountaineering - doing amazing things with the pitifully poor clothing and equipment of the day (he was happy to bivouac on a mountain with only a "blanket bag") - but also very involved in geology and, especially, the study of glaciers. It was typically Victorian to involve oneself in several fields of study at the same time. He also has interesting things to say about the inhabitants of the alpine regions, including the consequences of the in-breeding that was apparently common in some areas. This book is a delightful relic of very different times.