Mummery, Albert

Albert Frederick Mummery was born on September 10, 1855 in Dover , England , in the family of a wealthy entrepreneur - owner of several tanneries, Mayor of Dover (1864–1866) William Rigden Mummery ( English William Rigden Mummery ) and his wife Esther Ann Genge ^[3] . After the death of his father in 1868, Albert, along with his elder brother William Genge, inherited the family business, which gave him enough financial freedom to devote his leisure to his hobbies - mountaineering and economics . Love for the mountains in Mummery appeared and no longer left him until the end of life after visiting with his family in 1871 in Switzerland . Especially impressed Mummeri Matterhorn . On March 7, 1883, Albert married Maria Petrik (Petherick) (1859–1946) - the daughter of John William Petrik, a lawyer from Exeter . They had a daughter Hilda ^[4] .
In the 1880s, Mummery also showed an interest in political economy . Through mutual friends, he met the economist John Hobson - a teacher from Exeter, with whom he co-authored the paper “The Physiology of Industry” ^[5] . Mummery's later work in this area has not been preserved. After his death, they were transferred to Gobson and subsequently disappeared, and the Mummery family archive was destroyed during the bombing of Exeter in 1942 ^[4] .

Until the end of the XIX century, mountaineering was climbing to the summits along the most simple ridge routes accompanied by local mountain guides , and the “climbers” themselves, as a rule, were wealthy bourgeois, who considered this type of activity to be a privileged hobby rather than a sport. Albert Mummery made a radically different look at this sport, stating that its essence "... is not climbing to the summits, but fighting and overcoming difficulties" ^[6] . This position Mummery regarding mountaineering subsequently gained incredible popularity among the next generations of mountain climbers.

Albert Mummery began his mountaineering career in 1874, when he made his first ascent of the Matterhorn on the Edward Whimper route ( English Edward Whymper ) along the North East Hörnli ridge ( English Hörnli Ridge ). Until the end of the 1870s, Mummery, accompanied by various teams of alpine mountain guides, made many ascents in the Alps, but gradually began to abandon the services of guides, as well as, if possible, from using fixed railings, stairs and other related infrastructure on classical routes to the tops . He stated that the rules of the game should be based on, in his words, “fair opportunities” (“by fair means”) ^[7] . The so-called “ Alpine style ” (the fastest possible climb to the summit with minimal weight and, if possible, with minimal use of additional equipment followed by the most simple route), which pioneered Albert Mummery, perhaps partly due to his health problems. He was tall, thin, clumsy, had a weak spine since childhood, wore wire-rimmed glasses, did not like his appearance, and therefore was rarely photographed. These problems, even in adulthood, did not allow him to perform heavy tasks in mountain expeditions. One of his colleagues remarked: “He could not carry heavy loads” ^[8] .

Among the first serious independent ascents of Mummery between 1879 and 1881 is the new route to the Matterhorn along the ridge of Zmutt ( Zmutt ), ascent to the (4122 m) from the Sharpou glacier ( Fr. Charpoua ), (3445 m.) And (3482 m.). With these ascents, Mummery earned the fame of one of the best climbers of his time and raised the bar high for the standards of that time ^[4] . The Mammery slot on Grepon, which he completed in 1881, is a terrific section with a climbing level of 5.7 (according to the UIAA classification), which is not for everyone today ^{[7] [9]} .

In 1888, Albert Mammery made the first climb in the history of the unconquered "five thousand meters" of the Caucasus, the top of Dykhtau (5205 m.) Along a complex combined route along the south-western ridge (4B according to the Russian classification ^[10] ) ^[11] . After this ascent, Mummery was elected a member of the Alpine Club , in which, however, he remained the “black sheep" among the dominant educated bourgeois with a university degree. From time to time, he climbed with his wife or his girlfriend Lily Bristow. In the 1890s, he made a series of challenging independent ascents in the Alps along with , Geoffrey Hastings and , including Dent du Requin (3422 meters), (3673 m.) And the wall of the Brenva face of Mont Blanc ^[4] .

Albert Frederick Mummery in 1895 published a book “My Ascents in the Alps and the Caucasus” ^[12] about his ascents.

After almost all the accessible mountain peaks in Europe were conquered, English climbers turned their gaze to the unspoiled peaks of the Himalayas with a height of more than 8000 meters.

Albert Mummery was the first ascender to set a goal to climb the eight-thousanders. In June 1895, he traveled to the Himalayas with his two old companions, Norman Colley and Jeffrey Hastings, to climb the summit of Nanga Parbat (8125 meters), the ninth highest peak in the world, at that time the most accessible to Europeans. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, mountaineers, naturally, did not have the slightest idea about the peculiarities of climbing such high mountains, Mummery considered the Himalayas as “ordinary” mountains like the Alps or the Caucasus, but with high altitudes ^[8] .

After reconnaissance, the group chose an attempt to climb from the side of the Diamir glacier. At an altitude of 6,000 meters, climbers were forced to retreat - in the absence of experience in high-altitude ascents (which implies multiple acclimatization ascents), all participants suffered from altitude sickness. Norman Colley wrote: “Mummery, it seemed, never felt tired, he mastered all the way, passing through the loose snow, falling into his waist, along the ice walls, in which he had to cut down the steps for several hours ... the rarefied air seemed not at all domineering over Mummery . " After an unsuccessful attempt to climb from the side of Diamira, Mummery decided to try to find another way of ascent - from the side of the Rakiot valley. Together with two Gurkhas, Raghobir Thampa and Goman Singh, Mummery headed over the pass in the side ridge of the Nanga Parbat ridge to scout the way from the other side of the summit. On August 24, 1895, Albert Mummery and his two companions were last seen on the pre-crossing slope. Their death, the first in the history of Nanga Parbat and the conquest of "eight-thousanders", occurred, presumably, at an altitude of 6,400 meters from the Rakiot glacier as a result of a snow avalanche . The bodies have not yet been found ^[8] .

The first tent, designed specifically for climbing in the mountains, was a tent designed by Edward Whimper of the 1860s. It was a duo-pitch canvas canopy weighing about 9 kg, stretching on four racks with a height of about 2 meters. Mummery, who advocated climbing without professional guides or porters, between 1888 and 1892 made significant changes to its structure. His main task was to reduce the weight of this element of the camp equipment by maximizing the use of equipment already available to climbers. The tarpaulin, the main material of the tent, was replaced with soaked silk, the height of the tent was reduced to the average length of alpenstocks (~ 1.5 m), which were used as central tents of the tent instead of heavy frame bases. For the central and lateral delays, Alpine rope was used, which was fastened on ice axes or rock hooks . Thus, the weight of the tent was reduced to 1-1.5 kilograms. A detailed description of the construction of the Mammeri tent was published in 1892 in the book “Mountaineering” by Clinton Dent ^[13] .

In 1892, the British firm Benjamin Edgington established the manufacture of Mummery tents, which remained in production until 1968 ^[14] .
The Mammery tents were used by early Himalayan expeditions. Further improvements to the design affected only the size, materials of the awning, frame and fastenings of the braces. As a model that is inexpensive to manufacture and suitable for simple trips and weekend trips, the Mummery tent under various trademarks continues to be produced to this day ^[15] .

• W. Unsworth. Tiger in the snows: the life and adventures of AF Mummery. - 1967. - ISBN 1-904466-09-5 .
• PH Hansen. Vertical boundaries, national identities: British mountaineering on the frontiers of Europe and the empire, 1868-1914. - Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 24, 1996. - P. 48-71.

• Stewart Green (Climbing Expert). Albert Mummery Profile (eng.) . About.com. The date of appeal is February 2, 2015. The most complete article is dedicated to A. Mammery
• Peter H. Hansen. 'Mummery, Albert Frederick (1855–1895)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (English) (not available link) . Oxford University Press. The date of circulation is February 3, 2015. Archived February 5, 2015. Biography A. Mammery on the site of Oxford