In the year 1860, shortly before leaving England for a long continental tour, a certain eminent London publisher requested me to make for him some sketches of the great Alpine peaks. At that time I ha...

The First Edition of Scrambles Amongst the Alps appeared in the summer of 1871, and the Second Edition in the autumn of the same year. In 1879, a Third (condensed) Edition was published, under the tit...

Toil and pleasure, in their natures opposite, are yet linked together in a kind of necessary connection. Livy...

On the 23rd of July 1860, I started for my first tour in the Alps. As we steamed out into the Channel, Beachy Head came into view, and recalled a scramble of many years ago. With the impudence of igno...

The district of which Mont Pelvoux and the neighbouring summits are the culminating points,9 is, both historically and topographically, one of the most interesting in the Alps. As the nursery and the ...

Guidebooks say that the pass of the Mont Cenis is dull. It is long, certainly, yet it has a fair proportion of picturesque points, and it is not easy to see how it can be dull to those who have eyes. ...

Two summits amongst those in the Alps which yet remained virgin had excited my admiration. One of these had been attacked numerous times by good mountaineers without success; the other, surrounded by ...

The year 1862 was still young, and the Matterhorn, clad in its wintry garb, bore but little resemblance to the Matterhorn of the summer, when a new force came to do battle with the mountain, from anot...

I crossed the Channel on the 29th of July 1863, embarrassed by the possession of two ladders, each twelve feet long, which joined together like those used by firemen, and shut up like parallel rulers....

Carrel had carte blanche in the matter of guides, and his choice fell upon his relative Caesar, Luc Meynet, and two others whose names I do not know. These men were now brought together, and our prepa...

When we arrived upon the highest summit of Mont Pelvoux, in Dauphiné, in 1861, we saw, to our surprise and disappointment, that it was not the culminating point of the district; and that another mount...

Before 5 o’clock on the afternoon of June 23, we were trotting down the steep path that leads into La Bérarde. We put up, of course, with the chasseur-guide Rodier (who, as usual, was smooth and smili...

From Ailefroide to Claux, but for the path, travel would be scarcely more easy than over the Pré de Madame Carle.153 The valley is strewn with immense masses of gneiss, from the size of a large house ...

In the year 1864, very few persons knew from personal knowledge with what extreme inaccuracy the chain of Mont Blanc was delineated. During the previous half-century thousands had made the tour of the...

On July 10, Croz and I went to Sierre, in the Valais, via the Col de Balme, the Col de la Forclaz, and Martigny. The Swiss side of the Forclaz is not creditable to Switzerland. The path from Martigny ...

Our career in 1864 had been one of unbroken success, but the great ascent upon which I had set my heart was not attempted, and, until it was accomplished, I was unsatisfied. Other things, too, influen...

Croz and Biener did not return until past 5 a.m. on June 17, and we then set out at once for Zermatt, intending to cross the Col d’Hérens. But we did not proceed far before the attractions of the Dent...

We should have started for Zermatt about 7 a.m. on the 18th, had not Biener asked to be allowed to go to mass at Évolène, a village about two and a half hours from Abricolla. He received permission, o...

The Valley of Aosta is famous for its bouquetins, and infamous for its cretins. The bouquetin, steinbock, or ibex, was formerly widely distributed throughout the Alps. It is now confined almost entire...

Freethinking mountaineers have been latterly in the habit of going up one side of an Alp and coming down the other, and calling the route a pass. In this confusion of ideas may be recognised the resul...

Michel Croz now parted from us. His new employer had not arrived at Chamounix, but Croz considered that he was bound by honour to wait for him, and thus Christian Almer, of Grindelwald, became my lead...

The person who discovered the Col du Géant must have been a shrewd mountaineer. The pass was in use before any other was known across the main chain of Mont Blanc, and down to the present time it rema...

All of the excursions that were set down in my programme had been carried out, with the exception of the ascent of the Matterhorn, and we now turned our faces in its direction, but instead of returnin...

We started from Zermatt on the 13th of July, at half-past 5, on a brilliant and perfectly cloudless morning. We were eight in number⁠—Croz, old Peter and his two sons,356 Lord F. Douglas, Hadow, Hudso...

Hudson and I again consulted as to the best and safest arrangement of the party. We agreed that it would be best for Croz to go first,374 and Hadow second; Hudson, who was almost equal to a born mount...

On February 28, 1864, Mr. P. C. Gosset and Mr. B⁠⸺ started from the village of Ardon (about midway between Sion and Martigny), to make the ascent of the Haut de Cry (9,688 feet), with the guides J. J....

[Mr. R. B. Heathcote, of Chingford, Essex, whilst attempting to ascend the Matterhorn by the southern route, was unfortunately used as a lightning-conductor, when he was within 500 feet of the summit ...

The Val Tournanche natives who started to facilitate the way up the southwest ridge of the Matterhorn for MM. Giordano and Sella, pitched their tent upon my third platform, at the foot of the Great To...

1: 1858⁠–⁠9 2: July 3: August 4: July 5: Aug. 29 6: Aug. 29⁠–⁠30 7: January 8: July 7⁠–⁠8 9: July 9⁠–⁠10 ”: July 18⁠–⁠19 10: July 23⁠–⁠24 11: July 25⁠–⁠26 12: July 27⁠–⁠28 13: Aug. 10⁠–⁠11 14: June 21...

1: July 13⁠–⁠15 2: July 16⁠–⁠18 3: Aug. 13⁠–⁠15 4: Sept. 12⁠–⁠14 5: Oct. 1⁠–⁠3 6: July 24⁠–⁠25 7: July 26⁠–⁠28 8: Aug. 2⁠–⁠4 9: Aug. 3⁠–⁠4 10: Aug. 8430 11: Sept. 1⁠–⁠2 12: Sept. 2⁠–⁠3 13: Sept. 3⁠–⁠5...

Le Matterhorn ou Mont Cervin est formé depuis la base jusqu’au sommet de roches stratifiées en bancs assez réguliers, qui sont tous légèrement relevés vers l’Est, savoir vers le Mont Rose. Ces roches ...

In the spring of 1866, the late Principal J. D. Forbes urged me to endeavour to find out more about the “veined structure” of glaciers, which he then, and, I believe, until his death, considered, was ...

In the summer of 1869, whilst walking up the Valley of the Durance from Mont Dauphin to Briançon, I noticed, when about five kilometres from the latter place, some pinnacles on the mountain-slopes to ...

The author of Travels in Alaska. ↩ The Riffel hotel (the starting-point for the ascent of Monte Rosa), a deservedly popular inn, is situated at a height of 3,100 feet above that village (8,400 above t...