Alan Weber - Because Its There: A Celebration of Mountaineering from 200 B.C. to Today

3300 B.C.

The Ice Man becomes lost in the Oetzal region of the Alps and perishes.

200 B.C.

Hannibal crosses the Alps with elephants to attack Rome.

1336 A.D.

Petrarch climbs Ventoux with his brother.

1545

Conrad Gesner writes on mountains in his book on milk production.

1574

Josias Simler writes his history of the Alps.

1684

Thomas Burnet writes On the Sacred Theory of the Earth, an important early scientific work on mountains.

1732

Albrecht von Haller publishes a widely read series of poems on the Alps.

1744

Englishman William Windham travels over alpine glaciers and publishes his account of his journey.

1786

Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat climb Mont Blanc.

1802

Alexander von Humboldt climbs to 5,500 meters on Chimborazo in Ecuador and accurately describes altitude sickness.

1808

Maria Paradis is the first woman to ascend Mont Blanc.

1820

Zachariah Wilson and Rifleman Verplank climb Pikes Peak in Colorado.

1829

Killar Khasirov climbs Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus, the highest mountain in Europe.

1843

John Ruskin writes the first volume of Modern Painters, a work on painting containing two seminal chapters on mountains.

1846

Henry David Thoreau climbs Ktaadn in Maine and writes about his experience in The Maine Woods.

1852

Albert Smith stages the variety show The Ascent of Mt. Blanc, popularizing climbing in Britain.

1854

Alfred Wills ascends the Wetterhorn in the Alps, and later writes Wanderings among the High Alps.

1861

John Tyndall makes the first ascent of the Weisshorn.

1865

Edward Whympers spectacular accident on the Matterhorn occurs. A. W. Moore climbs the Brenva face of Mont Blanc.

1870

Hazard Stevens and Philemon Van Trump climb Mount Ranier.

1876

William Cecil Slingsby climbs Store Skagastolstind in Norway.

1880

Whymper climbs Chimborazo.

1881

B. Venetz and A. F. Mummery reach the top of the Grpon by setting new rock climbing standards on the Mummery Crack.

1889

Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtscheller climb Kilimanjaro.

1895

A. F. Mummery and two Ghurkas disappear on Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas.

1896

Norman Collie climbs Sgurr Coire an Lochain on the Island of Skye, the last unclimbed British mountain.

1897

The guide Mattias Zurbriggen of Edward Fitzgeralds expedition scales Aconcagua.

1902

American Alpine Club founded with assistance from Annie Peck.

1906

Founding of Japanese Alpine Club by Walter Weston and Usui Kojima. Duke of Abruzzi climbs most of the peaks in the Ruwenzori range in Uganda.

1908

Annie Peck climbs Huascarn in Peru, setting the womens world altitude record.

1909

Owen Glynne Jones writes Rock Climbing in the English Lake District, containing one of the first systems to describe the difficulty of a particular climb. The Duke of Abruzzi attempts K2.

1911

Karl Blodig of Bregenz completes his climbs of all 4,000 meter peaks in the Alps. Josef Knubel, G. W. Young and others climb the east face of the Grpon, which had defeated Mummery.

1913

Walter Harper of Hudson Stucks expedition makes it to the top of Mt. McKinley in Alaska.