Melchior Anderegg - King of the Mountain Guides

Melchior Anderegg (28 March 1828 – 8 December 1914), from Zaun, Meiringen, was a Swiss mountain guide and the first ascensionist of many prominent mountains in the western Alps during the golden and silver ages of alpinism. His clients were mostly British, the most famous of whom was Leslie Stephen, the writer, critic and mountaineer; Anderegg also climbed extensively with members of the Walker family, including Horace Walker and Lucy Walker, and with Florence Crauford Grove. His cousin Jakob Anderegg was also a well-known guide.

First ascents by Melchior Anderegg
 Wildstrubel, 3,243 m (Bernese Alps), 11 September 1858
 Rimpfischhorn, 4,199 m (Pennine Alps), 9 September 1859
 Alphubel, 4,206 m (Pennine Alps), 9 August 1860
 Blüemlisalphorn, 3,664 m (Bernese Alps), 27 August 1860
 Monte Disgrazia, 3,678 m (Bregaglia Range), 23 August 1862
 Dent d'Hérens, 4,171 m (Pennine Alps), 12 August 1863
 Parrotspitze, 4,432 m (Pennine Alps), 16 August 1863
 Balmhorn, 3,698 m (Bernese Alps), 21 July 1864
 Zinalrothorn, 4,221 m (Pennine Alps), 22 August 1864
 Grandes Jorasses, 4,208 m (Mont Blanc Massif), 30 June 1868

Other noteworthy climbs by Melchior Anderegg
 Mont Blanc, 4,809 m, via the Bosses du Dromedaire (1859)
 Mont Blanc via the Dôme du Goûter (1861)
 Solo reconnaissance up the Zmuttgrat of the Matterhorn (Pennine Alps) (1863)
 Mont Blanc via the Brenva face (1865)
 Winter traverse of the Finsteraarhorn, 4,273 m (Bernese Alps) (1866)
 Civetta, 3,220 m (Dolomites) (1867)
 Winter ascent of the Plattenhörner (1869)
 First winter ascent of the Galenstock, 3,586 m (Urner Alps) (1877)

Wikipedia

When Anderegg was born in 1828 just outside Meiringen in the hamlet of Zaun, mountaineering had barely started. His father was a farmer and Melchior’s early years were dominated by traditional mountain activities: tending cattle, cutting and processing timber and hunting chamois. The latter activity, along with crystal hunting, gave Swiss guides the kind of physical skills and self-assurance that translated easily into guiding work.

Melchior, for reasons lost to history, didn’t take over the family farm. Aged 20, he took a job at the Grimsel Pass Inn, now flooded by a reservoir, possibly because his cousin was manager. His early guiding work is also lost, because his first führerbuch, the book in which his guiding jobs were recorded, was stolen.

In 1855, Thomas Hinchcliff, one of the founding members of the Alpine Club, hired Melchior to take him over the Strahlegg Pass and was impressed. He introduced Melchior to his friends, notably Leslie Stephen, author of the mountaineering classic The Playground of Europe, father of the novelist Virginia Woolf, and founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography. All three men climbed the Wildstrubel together, and in 1859, Stephen and Anderegg climbed the Rimpfischhorn, a major first ascent.

The list of Melchior’s significant new climbs is remarkable: the Grandes Jorasses, with Horace Walker, the Zinalrothorn with Stephen and F Crauford Grove and the Dent d’Hérens, again with Grove and several others. Most impressive of all was the first ascent of Mont Blanc’s Brenva Spur, although it was a good job that his less cautious cousin Jakob was in the lead for the crux ice ridge. Melchior always put safety ahead of success.

Charles Hudson, who died following the first ascent of the Matterhorn, said Melchior was “for difficulties, the best guide I have ever met.” Yet it wasn’t just Melchior’s mountaineering skill that endeared him to his many English friends. Tall and powerful he combined all the advantages of great strength – physical and mental – with a reserved courtesy and consideration for his clients.

William Mathews, the man who proposed the idea of the Alpine Club, said that he never heard Melchior Anderegg utter a word “to which the gentlest woman might not have listened.” Which was lucky, since he regularly guided Lucy Walker, the first woman to climb the Matterhorn.

Anderegg’s great success both as a guide and a wood carver who exhibited in London secured the future for his large family. Two of his sons opened hotels in Meiringen and there are still Andereggs guiding in the Haslital.

Ed Douglas, bmc

Seine Gäste laden Anderegg zu einem Besuch in London ein – eine amüsante Episode, die an die Reise von Crocodile Dundee nach New York erinnert: Die Engländer überlassen Anderegg mitten in London sich selbst, um zu schauen, ob er zurück in ihre Wohnung findet. Der Orientierungssinn des Haslitalers funktioniert auch in der Metropole, und Anderegg ist vor seinen mit der Kutsche fahrenden Gästen wieder in der Wohnung. Die Episode soll im britischen Alpine Club noch Jahrzehnte erzählt worden sein – zu Ehren des «King of the Guides».

http://blog.tagesanzeiger.ch/outdoor/index.php/39371/horn-blasende-idioten/