Early attempts to ascend mountain peaks were inspired by other than sporting motives: to build altars or to see if spirits actually haunted once-forbidden heights, to get an overview of one’s own or a neighbouring countryside, or to make meteorological or geological observations. Before the modern era, history has recorded few attempts to ascend mountain peaks for the mere sake of the accomplishment. During the 18th century more and more natural philosophers—the scientists of their day—began making field trips into the Alps of Europe to make scientific observations. The area around Chamonix, France, became a special attraction to these investigators because of the great glaciers on the Mont Blanc chain. Mountaineering in a contemporary sporting sense was born when a young Genevese scientist, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, on a first visit to Chamonix in 1760, viewed Mont Blanc (at 15,771 feet [4,807 m] the tallest peak in Europe) and determined he would climb to the top of it or be responsible for its being climbed. He offered prize money for the first ascent of Mont Blanc, but it was not until 1786, more than 25 years later, that his money was claimed by a Chamonix doctor, Michel-Gabriel Paccard, and his porter, Jacques Balmat. A year later de Saussure himself climbed to the summit of Mont Blanc. After 1850 groups of British climbers with Swiss, Italian, or French guides scaled one after another of the high peaks of Switzerland. A landmark climb in the growth of the sport was the spectacular first ascent of the Matterhorn (14,692 feet) on July 14, 1865, by a party led by an English artist, Edward Whymper. In the mid-19th century the Swiss developed a coterie of guides whose leadership helped make mountaineering a distinguished sport as they led the way to peak after peak throughout central Europe.
By 1870 all of the principal Alpine summits had been scaled, and climbers began to seek new and more difficult routes on peaks that had already been ascended. As the few remaining minor peaks of the Alps were overcome, by the end of the 19th century climbers turned their attention to the Andes of South America, the North American Rockies, the Caucasus, Africa’s peaks, and finally the Himalayan vastness. Aconcagua (22,831 feet), the highest peak of the Andes, was first climbed in 1897, and the Grand Teton (13,747 feet) in North America’s Rocky Mountains was ascended in 1898. The Italian duke of the Abruzzi in 1897 made the first ascent of Mount St. Elias (18,009 feet), which stands athwart the international boundary of Alaska and Canada, and in 1906 successfully climbed Margherita in the Ruwenzori Group (16,795 feet) in East Africa. In 1913 an American, Hudson Stuck, ascended Mount McKinley (20,320 feet) in Alaska, the highest peak in North America. The way was opening for greater conquests, but it would be midcentury before the final bastion, Mount Everest, was ascended.
As the 20th century wore on, the truly international character of mountaineering began to reveal itself. Increasingly Austrians, Chinese, English, French, Germans, Indians, Italians, Japanese, and Russians turned their attention to opportunities inherent in the largest mountain landmass of the planet, the Himalayas. After World War I the British made Everest their particular goal. Meanwhile, climbers from other countries were making spectacularly successful climbs of other great Himalayan peaks. A Soviet team climbed Stalin Peak (24,590 feet), later renamed Communism Peak, in 1933; a German party succeeded on Siniolchu (22,600 feet) in 1936; and the English climbed Nanda Devi (25,643 feet) the same year. The Alpine Journal of London, a reliable chronicler of ascents, lists no peaks ascended for the first time between 1940–47, a reflection, of course, of the imperatives of World War II.
In the 1950s came a series of successful ascents of mountains in the Himalayas: a first climb by the French of Annapūrna I (26,545 feet) in June 1950; Nānga Parbat (26,660 feet) by the Germans and Austrians in 1953; K2 (28,251 feet) by the Italians in 1954; Kānchenjunga (28,169 feet) by the British in 1955; and Lhotse (27,940 feet) by the Swiss in 1956. Beyond all of these, however, the success of the British on Mount Everest (29,035 feet; see Researcher’s Note: Height of Mount Everest) when a New Zealand beekeeper, Edmund Hillary, and the Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay stood on the top of the world on May 29, 1953, was a culminating moment. This expedition, which was led by Colonel John Hunt, was the eighth team in 30 years to attempt Everest, and there had also been three reconnaissance expeditions.
K2 was climbed by two members of an Italian party in July 1954. An Austrian party reached the summit of Cho Oyu (26,906 feet), which is only slightly higher than Dhaulāgiri, in 1954. In May 1955 a French party succeeded in getting all of its members and a Sherpa guide to the summit of Makālu 1 (27,766 feet), a neighbour of Everest. Also in May 1955, as mentioned earlier, Kānchenjunga, at 28,169 feet often considered one of the world’s most difficult mountaineering problems, was climbed by an English expedition led by Charles Evans, who had been deputy leader of the first successful climb of Everest.
In the 1960s mountaineering underwent several transformations. As in the golden age of the Alps, once peaks were climbed, the emphasis moved to a search for more and more difficult routes up the mountain face to the summit. Moreover, vertical or other so-called impossible rock faces were being scaled through the use of newly developed artificial aids and advanced climbing techniques. Smooth, vertical faces of granite were overcome in climbs lasting days or even weeks at a time—for example, the 27-day conquest in 1970 of the sheer 3,000-foot southeast face of the granite monolith El Capitan in the North American Sierra Nevadas by American climbers.