Acting
Edward Whymper
Born 1840-04-27 · City of London, London, England, UK
Edward Whymper was a British mountaineer and illustrator, born April 27, 1840 in London and died September 16, 1911 in Chamonix where he is buried. He is best known for being part of the tragic expedition that first conquered the Matterhorn on July 14, 1865, and for the peaks and routes to which his name is attributed. He received training as a draftsman and engraver. He discovers the Alps on the occasion of a commitment to make illustrations. Among his most remarkable first ascents were the Barre des Écrins in the Écrins massif in 1864, and in 1865 the Aiguille Verte in the Mont-Blanc massif and especially the Matterhorn in the Valais Alps, a summit which had repelled many attempts . He also made the first ascent of the Chimborazo in 1880. The success at the Matterhorn was tarnished by an accident in which four people perished, including the Chamonix guide Michel Croz. His success, shortly before, at the Aiguille Verte, accompanied by Valais guides, was particularly badly felt in Chamonix. The story of his ascents forms the subject of his book Scrambles among the Alps (1871) where his conquering character is revealed. Whymper is interested in summits, not in routes: he chooses the most beautiful and difficult virgin summits of his time, surrounds himself with the best possible guides and, thanks to his extraordinary sense of the mountain, determines the most efficient route to reach the top. Thus for the Aiguille Verte he did not take the corridor that bears his name over its entire height, despite its intrinsic beauty: he branched off directly towards the summit in the last third, avoiding by a passage that e no longer take the steepest and most interesting part of the couloir. In this, Whymper clearly differs from Mummery, for whom, twenty years later, the beauty of the route and its difficulty take precedence. After the Alps, Whymper is interested in other massifs. He climbs in the Pyrenees, notably the Vignemale with the guide Célestin Passet. In fact, he is at the crossroads in the history of mountaineering, between exploration mountaineering and sport mountaineering (his book is still full of scientific notations on glaciers, etc. that are no longer found then with his successors). From his expedition to Greenland organized by Robert Brown in 1867, Whymper brought back an important collection of fossil plants, described by Professor Heer and deposited in the British Museum. Although handicapped by a lack of provisions, he proved that the interior of Greenland could be explored by means of sleds and this contributed to the advance of Arctic exploration. Another expedition in 1872 aimed to explore the coast. Whymper then organized an expedition to Ecuador to study acute mountain sickness and the effects of reduced atmospheric pressure on the human body. His guide was Jean-Antoine Carrel (who would later die of exhaustion in the Matterhorn after saving his clients from a snowstorm). Whymper made two ascents of Chimborazo (6,310 meters). He spent a night at the top of Cotopaxi and made several first ascents of great peaks with Jean-Antoine Carrel and Louis Carrel.
Acting credits
NRA climb to mark the 100th anniversary of the first ascent of the Matterhorn, live on TV. The programme, a coproduction of the Swiss, French, Italian and British televisions, was shown throughout Europe, in the United States and in Japan in a series of 5 broadcasts between 8 and 16h. This film, by the Swiss television, is a summary of the live broadcasts in a in a single program. Ian McNaught-Davis roped with the guide Heinrich Taugwalder and Jean Juge with Robert Bichler narrating the ascent while they climb by the original Whymper route. They follow the progression of Michel Darbellay and Hilti von Allmen who climb the north face by the Schmidt route. The program ends when all the teams meet at the summit.
Le Cervin en direct
1965
10.0The first ascent of the Matterhorn was made on July 14, 1865 by Edward Whymper, Francis Douglas, Charles Hudson, Douglas Hadow, Michel Croz and two guides from Zermatt, Peter Taugwalder father and son. Douglas, Hudson, Hadow and Croz are killed on the descent after Hadow slips and drags the other three men down the north face. Whymper and the two Taugwalders, who survive, are later accused of having cut the rope that connected them to the rest of the group so as not to be dragged into the fall, but the ensuing investigation finds no evidence of their guilt and they are acquitted. The Matterhorn is the last great peak in the Alps to be conquered and its ascent marks the end of the golden age of mountaineering. One hundred and fifty years later, a team undertakes the same expedition in order to unravel the mystery.
Cervin 1865, une première tragique
2015
NRA climb to mark the 100th anniversary of the first ascent of the Matterhorn, live on TV. The programme, a coproduction of the Swiss, French, Italian and British televisions, was shown throughout Europe, in the United States and in Japan in a series of 5 broadcasts between 8 and 16h. This film is the reedited version by the french televison of all the broadcasts in a single program. Ian McNaught-Davis roped with the guide Heinrich Taugwalder and Jean Juge with Robert Bichler narrate the ascent while they climb by the original Whymper route. They follow the progression of Michel Darbellay and Hilti von Allmen who climb the north face by the Schmidt route. All them meet at the summit. Michel Vaucher, Yvette Vaucher and Othmar Kronig who were also ascending the north face are interviewed, and the program ends with the television teams descending the mountain. Ettore Bich and Paul Etter ascended by the Italian side.
En direct du Cervin
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NR"Edward Whymper's relentless siege of the Matterhorn in 1865 ended in controversy when four of his companions plunged to their deaths an hour after leaving the summit... The documentary is the second episode of 'Mountain men', a British documentary series looking at the achievements of pioneering mountaineers. The series, accompanied by unique archival materials, detailed maps, and photographs, invites us to follow in the footsteps of these fearless explorers, and tells us their stories with all the romance and audacity, bravado and suffering, courage and miscalculation intact."
The Misfit and the Matterhorn
2001
6.8In 1966, John Harlin II died while attempting Europe's most difficult climb, the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland. 40 years later, his son John Harlin III, an expert mountaineer and the editor of the American Alpine Journal, returns to attempt the same climb.
The Alps - Climb of Your Life
2007
10.0The first filmed winter ascent of the north face of the Matterhorn. To set the scene, the tragic story of Edward Whymper's first ascent is skillfully pieced together. The modern expedition, a team of three British climbers, is also plagued with epics: Eric Jones is hit by an avalanche and can only come to a dangerous stop at the edge of a 1000 foot drop. Then the worst storm ever recorded in Zermatt hits the Matterhorn. With time and weather against them, the team is forced to climb in the dark as thunderstorms rumble around them. This adventure captures the skill and courage of the climbers, their agony and tension, and the beauty of the assault on this spectacular mountain. Grand Prize at the Les Diablerets festival (Switzerland) in 1976.
Matterhorn - The North Face In Winter
1976
8.3Struggle for the Matterhorn (German: Der Kampf ums Matterhorn) is a 1928 German-Swiss silent drama film co-directed by Mario Bonnard and Nunzio Malasomma and starring Luis Trenker, Marcella Albani, and Alexandra Schmitt. The film is part of the popular cycle of mountain films of the 1920s and 1930s. Art direction was by Heinrich Richter. Based on a novel by Carl Haensel, the film depicts the battle between British and Italian climbers to be the first to climb the Matterhorn. Trenker later remade the film as The Challenge in 1938.
The Fight for the Matterhorn
1928
8.7No synopsis available yet.
Cervino - La montagna del mondo
2015
10.0On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the first ascent of the Aiguille Verte, the Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix is producing a film retracing the major dates of this summit which is so dear to it. 'La Verte' has been the object of desire for many mountaineers for a century and a half. Big names have paraded in search of this 4122 meter summit: Edward Whymper, Michel Croz, Albert Mummery, Armand Charlet, Marco Siffredi... La Verte has had a strong impact on the history of mountaineering, inspiring Gaston Rébuffat who warned the future contenders for this summit: "Before the Verte you are a climber, in the Verte you become a mountaineer".
L'Aiguille Verte
2015