When Whymper set out from Zermatt for the summit of the Matterhorn on 14 July 1865, he would both achieve success and failure. Of the seven of his team, only Whymper and two Swiss guides would return alive. Disaster struck on the way back under circumstances still not fully explained. The controversial death of the three British climbers – one of them the 18-year-old heir to an ancient title – spread like wildfire around the world. It made Whymper’s and Zermatt’s fame notorious around the world and Whymper’s book on the ascent the first exploration memoir and a tweed-and-snow classic.
First expanded publication since 1878, with the photos as Whymper planned after a set of Whymper’s original photographs were recently discovered at auction
The first adventure bestseller that ignited around the world the obsession with mountains in 1865 and created the popular sport of mountaineering
Published in association with the Alpine Club, the world’s first mountaineering club set up in 1857 (by leading climbers including Virginia Woolf’s father) of which Whymper became a member in 1861