Henri Cordier or Henry Cordier (1856 – 7 June 1877) was a French

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

. In his short two-year career, he became the first Frenchman to reach the level of the English members of the

Alpine Club The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as: :"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of whi ...

, in the

silver age of alpinism The silver age of alpinism is the name given in the United Kingdom to the era in mountaineering that began after Edward Whymper and party's ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 and ended with W. W. Graham and party's ascent of the Dent du Géant in ...

in the second half of the 19th century, which was dominated by the development of mountaineering in the Alps. With some of the Alpine Club's mountain guides and mountaineers, he led significant first ascents in the

Mont Blanc massif The Mont Blanc massif (french: Massif du Mont-Blanc; it, Massiccio del Monte Bianco) is a mountain range in the Alps, located mostly in France and Italy, but also straddling Switzerland at its northeastern end. It contains eleven major indepen ...

and in the

Dauphiné Alps The Dauphiné Alps (french: Alpes du Dauphiné) are a group of mountain ranges in Southeastern France, west of the main chain of the Alps. Mountain ranges within the Dauphiné Alps include the Massif des Écrins in Écrins National Park, Belledon ...

(the

Massif des Écrins The mountains of the Massif des Écrins (; Écrins Massif) form the core of Écrins National Park in Hautes-Alpes and Isère in the French Alps.Louis Cordier Pierre Louis Antoine Cordier (31 March 1777 – 30 March 1861)
Annales.org, accessed 20 September 2009 was a French

and a great-nephew of politician and scientist

Louis Ramond de Carbonnières Louis François Élisabeth Ramond, baron de Carbonnières (4 January 1755 Strasbourg – 14 May 1827), was a French politician, geologist and botanist. He is regarded as one of the first explorers of the high mountains of the Pyrenees who can be d ...

, Henri Cordier pursued studies at the ''

École Libre des Sciences Politiques , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

'', founded in 1872, where he received high honors. He was first attracted by the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

, to which he traveled in 1874, before visiting the Swiss Alps the following year. His brief Alpine career combined talent and audacity. In the 1876 season he succeeded in making eleven

first ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...

s. He claimed to have climbed the western peak of the

Meije La Meije is a mountain in the Massif des Écrins range, located at the border of the Hautes-Alpes and Isère ''départements''. It overlooks the nearby village of La Grave, a mountaineering centre and ski resort, well known for its off-piste ...

that year, but was subsequently forced to retract the claim.

Major ascents

* 1874 - Mont Perdu,

Vignemale The Vignemale (; Occitan: ''Vinhamala'', Aragonese: ''Comachibosa'', Catalan: ''Vinyamala''), at 3,298 metres, is the highest of the French Pyrenean summits (the highest in the whole of the range is Pic d'Aneto). It lies on the border between ...

and

pic du Midi d'Ossau The Pic du Midi d'Ossau (2,884 m) is a mountain rising above the Ossau Valley in the France, French Pyrenees. Despite possessing neither a glacier nor, in the context of the range, a particularly high summit, its distinctive shape makes it a sy ...

* 1876 - Attempt at la Meije (then one of the last virgin peaks), on the north face by ''les Corridors'', with guides

Jakob Anderegg Jakob Anderegg (11 March 1829, in Oberwil im Simmental – 17 September 1878, in 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 alp ...

, Andreas Maurer and J. Bouillet (of

la Grave La Grave (; oc, La Grava) is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France. It is a small ski resort in the French Alps, dominated by La Meije (3982 m). It was the birthplace of Nicolas de Nicolay; adventurer and Geograp ...

), 21 June * 1876 - Aiguille du Plat de la Selle with guides Jakob Anderegg and Andreas Maurer, 28 June * 1876 - South

arête An arête ( ) is a narrow ridge of rock which separates two valleys. It is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequ ...

of Le Râteau with Jakob Anderegg and Andreas Maurer, 3 July * 1876 - Southeast arête of

Finsteraarhorn The Finsteraarhorn () is a mountain lying on the border between the cantons of Bern and Valais. It is the highest mountain of the Bernese Alps and the most prominent peak of Switzerland. The Finsteraarhorn is the ninth-highest mountain and thi ...

with Jakob Anderegg and Kaspar Maurer, 15 July * 1876 - Couloir Cordier on the northeast face of the

Aiguille Verte The Aiguille Verte (; ), which is French for "Green Needle", is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps. It was first climbed on 29 June 1865 by Edward Whymper, Christian Almer and Franz Biner, a fortnight before the fateful firs ...

with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and guides Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and Johann Jaun, 31 July. This steep snow and ice climb was not repeated until 1924 This book incorrectly gives the year of the Aiguille Verte climb as 1875. * 1876 - Voie Cordier on the north face of Les Courtes with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and guides Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and Johann Jaun, 4 August * 1876 -

Les Droites Les Droites () is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps and is the lowest of the 4000-metre peaks in the Alps. The mountain has two summits: * West summit (3,984 m), first ascent by W. A. B. Coolidge, Christian Almer and Ulrich ...

(east summit, highest point at ), with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and guides Johann Jaun and Andreas Maurer, 7 August * 1876 - Attempt at the north arête of

Piz Bernina Piz Bernina ( Romansh, it, Pizzo Bernina, ) is the highest mountain in the Eastern Alps, the highest point of the Bernina Range, and the highest peak in the Rhaetian Alps. It rises and is located south of Pontresina and near the major Alpine ...

, which Cordier declared "absolument impossible" (it was climbed two years later), with Thomas Middlemore and guides Johann Jaun and Kaspar Maurer, 12 August * 1877 - New attempt at la Meije by the glacier of Tabuchet with Jakob Anderegg and Andreas Maurer, 1 June * 1877 - Le Plaret, with Jakob Anderegg and Andreas Maurer, 7 June

Accident

Descending from Le Plaret, the group left the glacier, successfully passed the crevasse zone, unroped and ate a meal. Afterwards, Cordier went ahead. In front of his horrified companions, he performed a standing glissade down a steep snow slope above the glacial torrent of La Clause below the surface. The snow surface broke suddenly and Cordier was carried away by the white water under the ice and drowned. Jakob Anderegg was lowered into the twelve-foot hole on a rope, but could find no trace of Cordier and nearly suffocated before being pulled up. According to Henri Béraldi, Cordier had very poor eyesight, but refused glasses due to vanity. As he amused himself by slipping on the snowy slope, he was alerted by his guides and replied, "Ne vous inquiétez pas, je vais m'arrêter sur ce rocher noir" ("Do not worry, I'll stop on the black rock"). Unfortunately for Cordier, the rock in reality was a hole. Seven volumes. Reissue by "Les Amis du Livre Pyrénéen", Pau, 1977. Cordier's body was recovered the next morning forty feet below the location of his disappearance. The corpse was photographed by Henry Duhamel at La Bérarde. Henri Cordier was 21 years old.

Legacy

In memory of Henri Cordier, the Pic de Neige Cordier, located above the Glacier Blanc in the Massif des Ecrins, was named after him. It was climbed for the first time on 3 August 1877 by Paul Guillemin, Émile Pic, and Pierre Estienne. Cordier also gave his name to posterity in two first-routes, which he had executed in 1876 with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and guides Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and Johann Jaun: the Cordier Couloir on the North Face of the

and the Cordier route on the north face of Les Courtes (both in the Mont Blanc massif).

References

Bibliography

* * * * * (Description of the accident and discussion) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cordier, Henri 1856 births 1877 deaths Sport deaths in France Deaths by drowning in France French mountain climbers Mountaineering deaths People from Hautes-Pyrénées Sciences Po alumni