An Accidental Ascent

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Word count: 723

In August 1861 William Mathews, British mountaineer and founder of the Alpine Club of London in 1857, returned to Tignes with his climbing companions F.W. Jacomb, Michel Croz the famous mountain guide from Chamonix, and Croz’s brother Jean-Baptiste. Mathews had successfully climbed the Grande Sassière, a peak of 3747m situated above Val d’Isère, the summer before, and was hoping to be the first to climb Mont Pourri, at an altitude of 3779m.

On arrival they looked for a certain Ruet who might be their guide up Mont Pourri. But this Ruet had gone hunting, so they continued to the hamlet of Les Brevières and asked for information about the mountain there.

Williams Mathews wrote in his diary:

"We came across several villagers playing boules. We engaged them in conversation about Mont Pourri. A disagreeably voluble man with a high and mighty air told us that he had been just yards from the summit himself, and he offered to be our guide. Not without difficulty we made our arrangements with him and he took us to a chalet at Le Marais where, he told us, we would have to spend the night."

On the Marais pastureland, Mathews and the Croz brothers started to have their doubts about the identity of the mountain which they could see to their right (and indeed it was the Dôme de la Sache) and about the capabilities of the citizen of Les Brevières to lead them to the top. An argument broke out between the Englishman and the Breverin, the latter eventually being discharged with his belongings and a small remuneration. Accordingly, the next day, 14 August, Mathews and his companions were the first to scale the Dome de la Sache (3608m) but were vexed to see in front of them their real target, Mont Pourri, which rose another 200m above the Dôme.

Reluctantly, Mathews abandoned the ascent of Mont Pourri until the following year and decided to leave the Tignes/Val d’Isère region, preferring the more hospitable Aosta for the rest of the summer. But the party had to spend one more night in Tignes, so they made a detour via the lake and the two Englishmen bathed in the clear, glacial water, under the amused stares of the two climbers from Chamonix. Sacrés Anglais!

As night fell, the little band arrived in Tignes but avoided the Auberge Saint Roch to try instead the inn run by Constant Arnaud. The food there was better, but the room was even worse than at the Saint Roch, and the next day, with immense relief, they returned to the luxury of the Hotel du Mont Blanc in the Aosta Valley.

The stories of Mathews' travels in the Haute Savoie are interesting because even though they happened so long ago, this Englishman made interesting observations about the landscape, the villages, the inns and the character of the people of the Tarentaise, and particularly about certain citizens of Tignes with whom, it seems, he had difficulties in his financial dealings. Without exaggeration, this Briton had, as far as tourism goes, a head start of more than 50 years before other European tourists, and he considered the people of Tignes virtually as natives, in the pejorative sense. It is quite right that these ancestors of today’s instructors and hoteliers of the Espace Killy negotiated fiercely for the remunerations due to them, instead of simply accepting whatever was offered to them.

The famous guide from Chamonix, Michel Croz, returned to the Tarentaise in October 1861 and all alone, via the Peisey-Nancroix flank, he was the first to reach the summit of Mont Pourri. The Grande Motte (3656m) was scaled in 1864 for the first time by three British climbers, Cuthbert, Blandford and Rowsel, and the Tsanteleina (3602m) also by three Britons, Nichols, Blandford and Rowsel in 1865. Oh the British have never lacked courage or tenacity!

Nowadays, hords of British skiers arrive every week by the bus load, happy to come and play on the ski slopes of the Espace Killy. They are always determined, brave without even knowing it, a little condescending, always counting their money, but content to pay their way. Most have no idea that their ancestors were the main force behind the exploration of these mountains and the conquest of these peaks.

Translated from a story by Jose Reymond, in ‘J’ai plus de souvenirs que si j’avais mille ans”.