Mountaineer: Michel-Gabriel Paccard
Of all the challenges that the natural world provides, few encompass the scale of mountaineering. The ultimate pitting of man versus nature, climbing the ice-covered cliffs and crevasses of Earth’s monuments to its own power is an often-lethal test of raw physicality, mental fortitude, and intellectual awareness. Fatal to the unprepared, those that attempt the ascent of the world’s highest peaks are rewarded with an unmatched spiritual satisfaction, not to mention the glorious accolades associated with the conquest of nature’s mightiest forces.
Modern mountaineering is a discipline with a surprisingly short history, only around three centuries-long, for early endeavours in the world’s mountain ranges were not motivated by sporting achievement. Previously, expeditions may have been designed to build alters and commune with the spirits that were believed to haunt the mountain’s upper-reaches, or for the more practical purposes of getting an overview of the surrounding countryside and observing the stars unobstructed. Whilst there might be an element of all these things still very much prevalent in the modern climber’s philosophical experience of their journey to the peak, it was not until the 1700s that people really became interested in mountaineering for the sake of mountaineering.
It was natural philosophers who first turned their gaze toward the great heights of mountain ranges. They were the eighteenth-century equivalent of biological and geological scientists, but the poetic significance of the title is difficult to ignore. Beginning around the founding of the Alpine town of Chamonix, they flocked to the glaciers to make observations of the singular landscapes. This led a young scientist, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure to observe Mont Blanc and determine that he, or someone else at his bequest, would be the first to climb the mountain, offering up prize money for the first person to ascend the mountain. It was more than 25 years before Michel-Gabriel Paccard and his porter Jacques Balmat claimed the money, but this marked the first triumph that ignited a fervour to conquer the world’s peaks over the course of the subsequent century. This flood of mountain explorers culminated in the ultimate alpine achievement, when, in 1953, Kiwi beekeeper Sir Edmund Hilary and Tibetan guide Tenzing Norgay stood upon the roof of the world atop Mount Everest.
Since then, the singular rush and absolute discipline associated with mountain climbing has attracted thousands to ranges all over the world, including famous figures like Kiera Knightly and Kate Winslet. The physical exertion is certainly part of the appeal, but the willingness of mountaineers to put their life on the line for the climb speaks to something more than that. It is the sense of blissful flow in sharp contrast with the ferocious conditions, and the truly revelatory, spiritual experience upon summiting to see the world stretch out beneath your feet which truly pulls people toward the peak, for it is a feeling that no accolade can ever hope to match.
