Albert F. Mummery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1855-09-10)10 September 1855 |
| Died | 24 August 1895(1895-08-24) (aged 39) |
| Occupation(s) | Mountaineer, author |
| Spouse | Mary |
Albert Frederick Mummery (10 September 1855,Dover,Kent,England – 24 August 1895,Nanga Parbat), was an English mountaineer and author. Although most notable for his many and varied first ascents put up in theAlps, Mummery, along withJ. Norman Collie,Geoffrey Hastings, and twoGurkhas are also the first men in recorded history to have attempted to summit one of the Himalayaneight-thousanders.
Their innovative, light-weight endeavour uponNanga Parbat in 1895 proved ill-fated; Mummery and both Gurkhas died in an avalanche whilst reconnoitering the mountain's Rakhiot Face. The first man to summit on Nanga Parbat, the legendary Austrian mountaineerHermann Buhl, described Mummery as "one of the greatest mountaineers of all time".[1]
Mummery's father was a tanner and mayor ofDover. The tanning business was prosperous enough for Mummery to devote most of his energies to climbing andeconomics. He became a friend ofJ. A. Hobson, and they collaborated onThe Physiology of Industry (1889), which argued that because of economies' tendencies towards over-saving - and this being a cause of depressions – the economy required intervention to achieve stability.[2]
Mummery is best remembered for his pioneering efforts in mountaineering. Initially, he climbed withmountain guides, but with his companionsWilliam Cecil Slingsby,Geoffrey Hastings andJ. Norman Collie he was part of the movement which revolutionized alpinism by the practice of guideless climbing. He invented theMummery tent, a type of tent used in the early days ofmountaineering.
He made a series of remarkablefirst ascents, most notably theAiguille du Grépon (which features a crack named after him), the Dent du Requin, the Grands Charmoz, theTeufelsgrat on theTäschhorn, theDürrenhorn and the Zmutt ridge of theMatterhorn, which he ascended on 3 September 1879 with the guidesAlexander Burgener, J. Petrus and A. Gentinetta. In 1894, he led his friend, the youngDuke of the Abruzzi, to the top of the Matterhorn by the same route, together withJohn Norman Collie.
Mummery occasionally climbed with his wifeMary Petherick, or with his friendLily Bristow.
In 1880, Mummery and Burgener were repelled while trying to make the first ascent of the much-covetedDent du Géant, being forced back by some difficult slabs. This provoked Mummery to exclaim prophetically: 'Absolutely inaccessible by fair means!'[3]
In 1895, Collie, Hastings and Mummery were the first climbers to attempt theHimalayan 8,000 metre peak,Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world. On this pioneering lightweight expedition, the mountain claimed the first of its many victims, when Mummery and twoGurkhas, Ragobir Thapa and Goman Singh, fell and were killed by anavalanche while reconnoitering the Rakhiot Face. Their bodies were never found. The story of this disastrous expedition is told in J. Norman Collie's bookFrom the Himalaya to Skye. In 1898, Collie namedMount Mummery in the Canadian Rockies after his climbing companion.[4]
Mummery left behind him a legacy of some of the most well-regarded routes in the Alps, and also, in his bookMy Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus,[5] one of the enduring classics of mountaineering literature.
It has frequently been noticed that all mountains appear doomed to pass through the three stages: An inaccessible peak - The most difficult ascent in the Alps - An easy day for a lady.
— Albert Frederick Mummery, My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus
