Henri Cordier (mountaineer)

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Henri Cordier's corpse after recovery

Henri Cordier (* 1856 ; † June 7, 1877 above La Bérarde ; also Henry Cordier ) was a French mountaineer . In his short two-year career, he was the first Frenchman to reach the level of the English members of the Alpine Club , who dominated the mountaineering development of the Alps in the so-called "golden years" of alpinism in the second half of the 19th century. With his mountain guides and sometimes with mountain friends from the Alpine Club, he carried out important first ascents in the Mont Blanc Massif and in the Dauphiné Alps ( Massif des Écrins ).

Large tours and first ascents

  • June 21, 1876: First attempt to climb the 3,983 m high La Meije - at that time one of the last great untouched peaks - over the north face through the corridors with the guides Jakob Anderegg , Andreas Maurer and J. Bouillet (from la Grave ).
  • June 28, 1876: Aiguille du plat de la Selle in the Soreiller group of the Massif des Écrins, 3,597 m, with the guides Jakob Anderegg and Andreas Maurer.
  • July 3, 1876: South ridge of Le Râteau , 3,809 m, in the Massif des Écrins, with Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer.
  • July 15, 1876: Southeast ridge of the Finsteraarhorn with Jakob Anderegg and Kaspar Maurer.
  • July 31, 1876: Cordier-Couloir in the north face of the 4,122 m high Aiguille Verte in the Montblanc massif with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and the guides Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and Johann Jaun
  • August 4, 1876: Cordier route in the north face of Les Courtes (next to Aiguille Verte and Les Droites in the Montblanc massif) with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and the guides Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and Johann Jaun.
  • August 7, 1876: First ascent of the eastern summit of Les Droites (in the Montblanc massif, lowest 4000m in the Alps), with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and the guides Jakob Anderegg, Johann Jaun the Elder. J. and Andreas Maurer.
  • August 12, 1876: First attempt to climb Piz Bernina via the north ridge, which he described as absolutely impossible (it was nevertheless climbed two years later).
  • June 1, 1877: Another attempt to climb the Meije over the Tabuchetgletscher with Jakob Anderegg and Andreas Maurer.
  • June 7th 1877: First ascent of the 3,563 m high Le Plaret in the Massif des Écrins with Jakob Anderegg and Andreas Maurer.

accident

On the descent from the Plaret, the successful group stopped on the lower part of a glacier after they had successfully mastered the crevasse zone and put down the rope. Cordier then went ahead and tried before the eyes of his horrified companions to slide down a steep snow slope above the glacier river, which is two to three meters below the surface. The snow surface suddenly collapsed and Cordier was carried away by the white water under the ice and drowned. His body could not be recovered until the following day as part of an expensive but futile rescue operation. Henri Cordier was only 21 years old.

memory

In the Massif des Écrins, the Pic de Neige Cordier located above the Glacier Blanc and named after him is reminiscent of Henri Cordier , which Paul Guillemin, Émile Pic and Pierre Estienne climbed for the first time on August 3, 1877. In addition, his name was firmly established for posterity in two first routes that he had taken in 1876 with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and the guides Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and Johann Jaun: the Cordier Couloir on the north face of the Aiguille Verte and the Cordier - Route in the north face of Les Courtes (both in the Montblanc massif).

literature

  • Henry Cordier: Courses nouvelles dans les Alpes suisses. In: Annuaire Club alpin français 1877 (Yearbook 1877 of the French Alpine Club) Article in archive.org French
  • Henry Duhamel : About you piolet d'Henry Cordier. In: Annuaire Club alpin français 1885 (1885 yearbook of the French Alpine Club) Article in archive.org (description of the accident and discussion; French)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see article w: fr: Aiguille du plat de la Selle in the French-language Wikipedia
  2. ↑ a b François Labande: du Haut-Dauphiné Guide. Massif des Écrins . Ed .: Éditions de l'envol. tape 1 , 1995, North part: Râteau, Soreiller, Meije, Grande Ruine.
  3. ↑ see article w: fr: Le Râteau in the French language Wikipedia
  4. ↑ a b c Yves Ballu: Les alpinistes , Glénat, 1997
  5. ↑ see article w: fr: Le Plaret in the French language Wikipedia
  6. ↑ see web link Extraordinary Alpine Accidents
  7. ↑ Article La montagne c'est pointu in the French mountaineering blog chaps.canalblog
  8. ↑ see article w: fr: Henry Duhamel in the French language Wikipedia
personal data
SURNAME Cordier, Henri
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cordier, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French climber
DATE OF BIRTH 1856
DATE OF DEATH June 7, 1877
Place of death Massif des Écrins