Author: Peter Stettler for Schweizer Alpen-club SAC
Born in Saas Fee, raised in Macugnaga, on the path of the illustrious and famous, successful on the highest mountains of his time: this was Matthias Zurbriggen, one of the most famous mountain guides in the Valais, at the end of the 19th century. . His recently released guide is a real treasure.
Some time ago, an American tourist gave the Swiss Alpine Museum in Bern a special gift: his great-grandfather Matthias Zurbriggen´s mountain guide from 1894-1906. The great-grandson, Tom Zurbriggen, of Onalaska/Wisconsin, found it in the attic of his parents in Iowa, who in turn had received it from Tom´s grandfather, Matthias Zurbriggen´s son who emigrated to the United States. A true odyssey ended unexpectedly well. This second «Libretto di Guida» complements Zurbriggen´s previous knowledge of alpinism and his professional and character traits.
From goatherd to mountain guide Matthias was born in Saas Fee, Switzerland, in 1856, where he only spent the first two years of his life. Because already in 1858 the large family moved through the port of Monte Moro to Pestarena, where his father had better income opportunities in the gold mines.
Just six years later, an accident took away the economic support of the Walser family, and young Matthias, like his brothers, had to earn a living as a goat herder, and later as a casual worker in the Valais and the West. from Switzerland. In the late 1880s he made the decision to become a mountain guide.
There was no official training at the time, and everyone had to collect the equipment themselves. With his first guests, he climbed the Dufourspitze from Macugnaga via the Marinelli Couloir, then also the Montblanc and, under dramatic circumstances together with the Englishman Fison, the Matterhorn in 1889.
Matthias Zurbriggen quickly became a highly sought after guide. His clients included well-known mountaineers and researchers such as the first climber of the Matterhorn, Edward Whymper, Lord Conway of Allington, the Fonblanque couple, the Bullock Workman couple, Prince Scipione Borghese, and the hatmaker Giuseppe Borsalino.
In 1892, Lord Conway hired him for an eight-month research trip to the Karakoram. The ascent to Pico Pioneer, 6,890 m, from the Baltoro Glacier, was a height record for the time. «I felt closer to heaven. I saw all the beauty spread before me, with which a good God has bestowed our world.»
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In 1895, Zurbriggen came to New Zealand thanks to his new employer, Edward Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald reported on it in the New Zealand Alpine Journal, particularly Zurbriggen´s dramatic rescue of him from Mount Sefton.
After the first joint ascents of Mount Sealy, Mount Tasman, Silberhorn, and Mount Haidinger, Zurbriggen single-handedly accomplished the second ascent of Mount Cook, 12,000 feet (3,754 m), the highest peak in New York, on March 14, 1895. Zeeland.
Nearly three months earlier, a ropes team from New Zealand had climbed it for the first time. Zurbriggen first reached the summit via the Northeast Ridge. A second trip to New Zealand the following year, this time with Giuseppe Borsalino, was less successful due to unfortunate weather conditions.
The first ascent of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, on January 14, 1897, single-handedly because Fitzgerald was too exhausted, undoubtedly marked the climax and culmination of Zurbriggen´s career as a mountain guide. On April 12 he was together with Stuart Vines, in the first ascent of Tupungato, 6550 m.
In 1899 and 1902, Zurbriggen again traveled to the Himalayas, both times at the invitation of the American research couple Bullock Workman. Climbing a hitherto unknown summit with Fanny – later renamed Mount Bullock Workman, 6400m – prompted Zurbriggen to later comment that he was very happy to have taken a lady to such a high point for the first time… «Because I am convinced that a good climber can reach much greater heights, and I only have one hope that they will choose me as their guide.»
Between these two Himalayan expeditions, Zurbriggen traveled with Scipione Borghese in 1900 via Moscow and Tashkent to the Tien Schan Mountains, where there were some first ascents. Missed the main objective, the ascent of Khan Tengri, 6995m.
In the opinion of his contemporaries among the mountain guides of the time, Matthias Zurbriggen was an exception. He embodied all the qualities and skills that he himself considered indispensable in his memory for fitness for the profession of leadership. The guide reads one and again about the careful preparation of each course, his almost blind orientation in the most difficult terrain, his sure instinct, his presence of mind and his quick decision-making capacity. Even in difficult situations, he always remained calm.
And Matthias Zurbriggen as a person? Anyone who had anything to do with him felt his great love for the mountain. He appreciated his courteous and helpful character, his patience and the confidence he conveyed. Rosemary de Fonblanque and Fanny Bullock Workman praised his skillful handling of women: «Certainly he is more recommendable as a guide to ladies.»
For others, Zurbriggen was emotional, even irascible, uncompromising, controversial. Ambition? «There is still a huge mountain I would like to climb,» he confesses at the end of his memoir. That is Mount Everest. A walkable trail leads to the top of each mountain. I certainly think there is one on Mount Everest as well, the highest.»
Thanks to his guides and other records of him, much is known about this «glamorous» mountain guide, some things remain in the dark. For example, to this day we do not know why Matthias Zurbriggen suddenly turned his back on his beloved profession as a mountain guide in 1907.
This mountain man spent the last ten years in Geneva, where he allegedly committed suicide in a hospital on June 21, 1917, plagued by financial difficulties and addicted to alcohol.
Besides all the memories of him, he has been survived by the «Zurbriggen Ridge» in New Zealand, the «Colle Zurbriggen» in the Monte Rosa massif and the «Cerro Zurbriggen» in Argentina.
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