Carrel, Jean-Antoine

Jean-Antoine Carrel was born on January 16, 1829 in the Italian province of Valtournenche, in a French-speaking village at the southern foot of the Matterhorn ^[1] . After serving in the Piedmontese army in the Bersalier’s corps, he retired from the army in order to marry. After serving in the army, Jean-Antoine became a mountain guide and hunter. In 1859, he was again drafted into the Italian army to participate in the Second Italian War of Independence , where he fought against Austria . Carrel was awarded the ^[2] .

Beginning in 1858, Jean-Antoine Carrel began to attempt to climb the Matterhorn. At that time, he was one of the few climbers who believed that the Matterhorn could be conquered. However, the best result, which he managed to achieve during 1858 and 1859, was about 3,850 meters (12,650 feet) high along the crest of Lyon (from the Italian side) ^[3] .

In 1861, 1862 and 1863, Jean-Antoine Carrel made several successive attempts to climb the Matterhorn with the British climber Edouard Whimper . Whymper highly appreciated Jean-Antoine Carrel as a professional and called him "the best climber he had ever met " ^[4] . But none of their attempts were unsuccessful. During one of the attempts of ascent without Whimper (July 27–28, 1862), Carrel, who accompanied Professor John Tyndall’s group, made the first ascent to the summit, later called (intermediate Matterhorn peak 4241 meters high). During this ascent they managed to reach a height of 4,258 meters, which was the best achievement of all the failed first attempts at climbing ^[5] .

After 1863, Whymper for two years abandoned attempts to conquer the Matterhorn. At the same time, in an atmosphere of strict secrecy in Italy, the was created, the first goal of which was the conquest of Matterhorn as the last of the "great" undefeated Alpine quadruple players ^[6] . In 1864, one of the authors of the project Felice Giordano arrived in the Italian resort of Breuil-Cervinia to explore the mountain and meet Jean-Antoine Carrel. The following year, July 8, 1865, he re-arrived at Breuil-Cervinia and hired Jean-Antoine Carrel and his team to climb from the Italian side. Arriving a day later, Whymper was refused by Jean-Antoine, who had previously agreed to accompany him ^[7] .

Jean-Antoine Carrel and his group went on the ascent on July 11th. Having forcedly spent several days on the mountainside due to bad weather, they were able to continue their ascent only on July 14. When they had about 200 meters to the top, they saw a group of Whimper on top. Jean-Antoine decided that there was no point in continuing to climb, and came back. However, three days later, on July 17, they nevertheless climbed to the top. This was the second ascent of the Matterhorn and the first ascent along the crest of Lyon from the Italian side ^{[8] [9]} .

In the following years, Jean-Antoine Carrel continued to work as a mountain guide in the Alps, making several more remarkable ascents. On July 2, 1872, jointly by Thomas Stuart Kennedy and Johann Fischer, he was the pioneer of the new route along the southeast wall of Mont Blanc, which later became very popular. On July 17, 1876, Jean-Antoine Carrel was among the pioneers of the new, complex route to Mont Blanc du Taculus ^[10] .

In 1880, Jean-Antoine Carrel accompanied Wimper (also with them was Jean-Antoine's cousin, mountain guide Louis Carrel) on his expedition to South America , where they made several ascents to the highest peaks of Ecuador. On January 4, 1880, they made their first ascent to the highest peak of Ecuador, Chimborazo volcano , and became the first Europeans to reach more than 20,000 feet (about 6,000 meters) ^{[11] [12]} . Also Carreli and Whimper made the first ascent of the Antisan volcanoes (5753 meters, March 9, 1880) ^[13] , Ilinis (southern peak, 5126 meters, May 1880; Whymer did not participate in the ascent) ^[14] , Kayambe (5790 meters ) ^{[15] [16]} and several other, lower vertices. In total, Whimper and Carrelli made the first eight ascents to the volcanoes of Ecuador ^[17] . In addition to the first ascents, they also made several other ascents ( Corazon , Pichincha , Cotopaxi , where they spent the night near the crater of the volcano) ^[18] .

On March 17, 1882, Jean-Antoine with other local guides, accompanying the Italian , made their first winter ascent along the crest of Lyon on the Matterhorn. At that time, winter mountaineering was still in its infancy, and their achievement was a notable event ^[19] .

Jean-Antoine Carrel died August 26, 1890. Together with the guide Carlo Gorre, he accompanied the climber Leon Sinigalhale on the ascent of the Matterhorn. During their return from the shelter of Cervino, they fell into a strong snow storm at an altitude of about 2,915 meters. After 16 hours, Carrel managed to lead the group, but he soon died from exhaustion and a heart attack ^[20] .

on the crest of Lyon on the Matterhorn at an altitude of 3825 meters is named after Jean-Antoine Carrel. The shelter is located behind the pass Col du Lyon ^[21] . Also in honor of Carrel, the m peak is named between 3841 meters high, located between the Matterhorn and the Dan-d'Eran summit. At the place of Carrel's death, a memorial cross was installed ^[20] .

In 1920–1930, during the period of heightened interest in mountaineering themes in cinema, several films appeared about the first ascent of the Matterhorn, in which Jean-Antoine Carrel included. In 1928, the film “Der Kampf ums Matterhorn” (“Fight for the Matterhorn”, “The Battle for the Matterhorn”) made by Switzerland and Germany about the opposition of English and Italian climbers for the first ascent of the Matterhorn was released. It was a silent film by Italian directors Mario Bonnard and Nunzio Malasomma. The main role in the film was played by German actor Louis Trenker , who played Edward Weimper. Ten years later, in 1938, Trenker, as a director, released 2 remakes of this film, “The Challenge” (England) and “Der Berg ruft!” (Germany; “The Mountain Calls”). In both films, Trenker played the role of Jean-Antoine Carrel ^[22] .

• Edward Whymper. Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-69 . - London: J. Murray, 1871. - 432 p.
• Rey Guido, Eaton John Edward Caldwell, Irving Robert, Lock Graham. The Matterhorn . - New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907. - 336 p.
• Mark Thurber, Rob Rachowiecki. Ecuador: Climbing and Hiking Guide. - Viva Publishing Network, 2008. - 308 p. - ISBN 0979126452 , 9780979126451.

• Jean-Antoine Carrel, el vi negre ho cura tot (Italian) . Biografies alpines (25 maggio 2014). The appeal date is December 18, 2016.
• Trekking - The Itirenary JA Carrel (English) (inaccessible link) . cervinia.it. The appeal date is December 18, 2016. Archived September 8, 2016.