Book Review
Matterhorn:
The Quintessential Mountain
297mm x 210mm, 272 pages hardback
Author: Graeme Wallace, Edward Whymper
Photography: Graeme Wallace
ISBN: 9780957084490 RRP: £0.00
Published:1 October 2015 by www.gwpublishing.com
Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the first climb of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper and his party in July 1865, this large format pictorial book features over 100 pages of photographs of the world's most recognisable mountain, together with tantalising extracts from Whymper's own book "The Ascent of the Matterhorn" and the details of Graeme Wallace's attempt to traverse the summit up via the Lion Ridge in Italy and down the Hornli Ridge in Switzerland, 150 years later in 2015.
Back in 1865, a series of remarkable coincidences brought together several ambitious British mountaineers in a race to be the first to ascend the 4478m Matterhorn. Referred to as The Devil's Mountain and believed to be the place where only spirits dwelt, the Matterhorn was considered unscalable. While the hurriedly formed British team tackled the unknown north-east ridge, a well-funded Italian team, with a two day head-start, approached via the south-west ridge. The race to finally conquer the mighty Matterhorn was truly on. Success was followed by disaster and, despite becoming the most successful mountaineer of his day, stories of triumph, transgression and tragedy would follow Whymper for the rest of his 46years of life.
NB The Ascent of the Matterhorn was previously published as Scrambles Amongst the Alps and is still available as part of the National Geographic Adventure Classics series.
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