A History of Mountaineering in the Alps

AUTHORS NOTE: WRITING a history of mountaineering when so many books have already been devoted to one or father aspect of the subject is a problem, the solution of which has not always been easy to find. I have attempted, moreover, to write it direct into English, which is not my mother tongue, and that has added to my problems. I have tried to give a wide interpretation of the subject, investi gating many aspects which had been often neglected this involved much complicated research and I had to ask many questions, some of which were probably thought quite irrelevant by those I approached. I had to limit my research to the Alps. A world history of mountaineering was not to be thought of, and even moun taineering in Europe was too big a subject to be dealt with in a coherent way. As a matter of fact, all the other mountain ranges the Pyrenees, Caucasus, Carpathians, Scandinavian were developed by climbers after the Alps, in order to carry and test elsewhere the technique discovered in the mountains of Switzer land and Savoy. FOREWORD by F. S. SMYTHE: THIS is a remarkable book for two reasons. It is the first really comprehensive work to be published in this country on the history of mountaineering, from the earliest travellers in the Alps down to the present-day climbing technique, which expresses itself on mountain sides believed impossible. The other remarkable fact is that it has been written by Mile Engel, a Frenchwoman, in English, and is not even a translation of any of her numerous works in the French language. It might indeed have been written by a scholarly Englishman who not only possessed an excellent vocabulary but a wealth of synonym and metaphor combined with a rhythmical flow of prose. Having had the privilege of being acquainted with Mile Engel for many years, I know how much work and research she has put into her book, and from the letters and archives of past mountaineers, scientists and travellers in the Alps she has dis covered matter of great value to all interested in the history of mountaineering and Alpine adventure. She is herself a moun taineer with a wide circle of mountaineering friends and acquain tances...