Climbing in France

The first mountain climbing in France is the reported ascent on 26 April 1336 of Mont Ventoux (1912 m) in the Baronnies massif by scholar Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), his brother and two servants. Though the report, in a letter to a friend, has been questioned, it dates the start of a fascination for the peaks of the country. With time, progressively higher peaks were climbed, culminating on 8 August 1786 with the first ascent of Mont Blanc (4808 m), the highest in the Alps, by guide Jacques Balmat (1762-1834) and doctor Michel Paccard (1757-1827). In the annals of mountaineering, that signalled the start of the golden age of the sport. Mountain guiding became a profession, first in 1821, with the founding of Compagnie des guides de Chamonix. Clubs were founded, in the UK in 1857, Switzerland in 1863, and, belatedly, in France in 1874. And one by one, the formidable peaks were climbed, perhaps most famously the Matterhorn in Switzerland in 1877 by Englishman Edward Whymper (1840-1911). In 1938, ENSA, the first national academy of mountaineering, was founded in Chamonix. By the 1950s, the summits of the Alps had been climbed and climbed again, and the frontier of mountaineering interest turned elsewhere, to the eight-thousanders, the 14 peaks of the Himalaya over 8000 m in elevation. Again, French climbers were first, on 3 June 1950, when Maurice Herzog (1919- ) and Lous Lachenal (1921-1955) reached the summit of Annapurna (8091 m). One month short of five years later, countrymen Jean Couzy (1923-1958) and Lionel Terray (1921-1965) were first on Makalu (8463 m), so one in seven of the eight-thousanders were conquered by French climbers.

Today, 240 clubs and their 89,000 members practise traditional mountaineering and are affiliated in the Federation francaise des clubs alpins et de montagne (FFCAM), the present name of Club alpin francais founded in 1874. Chamonix remains the hub of the sport. Its peaks and needles continue to challenge, and the Compagnie des guides de Chamonix has 200 licensed guides as well as a guide training school that welcomes aspiring guides from round the world. In 1988, the Centre national d'instruction de ski et d'alpinisme de la Gendarmerie (CNISAG) set up in Chamonix, thereby making it a major centre for both civilian and military mountaineering training.

In 1942, Federation francaise de la montagne et de I'escalade (FFME) was founded to augment traditional mountaineering by organising expeditions and extending activities. Early on, it mounted the 1950 Annapurna expedition, and today it is the central clearing house for 1150 clubs active in mountaineering, rock climbing, mountain skiing and ski touring, snowshoeing and canyoning, the French neologism for sports practised in canyons, including climbing, Whitewater rafting, kayaking and swimming (hydrospeed).

For further information, contact:

• Compagnie des guides de Chamonix, 190 place de 1'Eglise, 74400 Chamonix, Tel: 04 50530088, www.chamonix-guides.com in French and English.
• Federation francaise des clubs alpins et de montagne (FFCAM), 24 avenue de Laumiere, 75019 Paris, Tel: 01 53728700, www.ffcam.fr with interactive cabin and club locator maps.