page_title: Pyreneism
section_title: The issue of the first ascent
hierarchical_section_title: Pyreneism / The issue of the first ascent
caption_attribution_description: Fonds Trutat - Photographie ancienne Cote&#160;: TRU C 558 Localisation&#160;: Fonds ancien (S 30) Original non communicable Titre&#160;: Echelle de Tuquerouye, [Félix] Regnault et Henri Passet, octobre 1892 Auteur&#160;: Trutat, Eugène Rôle de l’auteur&#160;: Photographe Lieu de création&#160;: Tuquerouye (Hautes-Pyrénées) Date de création&#160;: 1892 Mesures&#160;:&#160;: 9 x 12 cm Observations&#160;: Notes de la main de E. Trutat&#160;: "hemisph. Darlot f. 11, papier en rouleau Eastman?" Retouches au crayon et au stylo rouge sur le négatif par E. Trutat Mot(s)-clé(s)&#160;: -- Montagne -- Pierre -- Sommet (montagne) -- Alpinisme -- Guide de montagne -- Automne -- Regnault, Félix -- Passet, Henri -- Mont-Perdu (Hautes-Pyrénées) -- Tuquerouye (Hautes-Pyrénées) -- Tuquerouye, Echelle de (Hautes-Pyrénées&#160;; col) -- Tuquerouye, Refuge de (France) -- Midi-Pyrénées (France) -- Pyrénées (France) -- 19e siècle, 4e quart Médium&#160;: Photographies -- Négatifs sur papier -- Noir et blanc -- Eastman -- Scènes Bibliothèque de Toulouse. Domaine public
context_page_description: Although the term "alpinism" has become synonymous with sporting achievement, pyreneism, appearing in the 19th century, distanced itself from it by considering the physical experience of the mountains as inseparable from the aesthetic and cultural emotion.
  We cannot mention the word "pyreneism" without speaking about its inventor, the historian and geographer Henri Beraldi. Indeed, as the origin of the word alpinism goes back to 1876, we find the term pyreneism for the first time in the foreword of his Excursion biblio-pyrénéenne that introduces volume 1 of 100 years in the Pyrenees in 1898:
  The picturesque knowledge of the Pyrenees - not to be confused with the scientific knowledge - is today complete.This required centuries of efforts, traced through a series of writings forming the Pyrenees' history - one says pyreneism like one says alpinism [...]
  Contrary to what one may think, when the word "pyreneism" was launched by Henri Beraldi in his 7-volume authoritative book, it was not meant to stand opposite to the word "alpinism".
context_section_description: The first (the first ascent of a summit or the first hiking on a particular itinerary), is a question found in all the pyreneist literature, at least that of books on summits: who is the author of such summit, of such ascent track? Object of debates, indeed of quarrels.
  The very nature of the Pyrenees, a mid-altitude massif practically devoid of icy zones, makes most summits accessible, at least in summer. The matter of their first ascent therefore is of limited interest: occupied since neolithic times by herds and their shepherds, by Pyrenean chamois hunters and by smugglers, these mountains were roamed upon at all times. And the summits, from the view point of their inhabitants, neither more nor less interesting than the pastures: their animals, especially ovines, would sometimes get lost up to the highest altitudes, and these places would occasionally be used as hunting posts. Of course, some conquests have almost certainly been accomplished by tourists, travellers and other pyreneists (the Balaïtous, the high crests of the Vignemale, probably the Maladetta beyond the glaciers...). But the pyreneists themselves sometimes acknowledge it: there already was a sign, a turret, a trace on that summit that one had just conquered. And Ramond de Carbonnières' guides were led to the summit of the Monte Perdido by a Spanish shepherd...
  The first ascent is sometimes claimed by the one who calls himself its author: many times Beraldi adds, following the word "first", "by a tourist". The ascent has value, indeed has existence (is publicly known), only when it has been told in writing. Thus it is the writer-tourist who will be acknowledged as its author, and not the mountain locals or the guides who led the ascent.
caption: Echelle de Tuquerouye, Felix Regnault and Henri Passet in October 1892
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