Henri Cordier or Henry Cordier (1856 – 7 June 1877)[1] was a French
mountaineer. In his short two-year career, he became the first Frenchman to reach the level of the English members of the
Alpine Club, in the
silver age of alpinism 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 and in the
Dauphiné Alps (the
Massif des Écrins).
Biography
A grandson of geologist
Louis Cordier and a great-nephew of politician and scientist
Louis Ramond de Carbonnières, Henri Cordier pursued studies at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, founded in 1872, where he received high honors.[2] He was first attracted by the
Pyrenees, 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 ascents. He claimed to have climbed the western peak of the
Meije that year, but was subsequently forced to retract the claim.[3]
1876 - Attempt at
la Meije (then one of the last virgin peaks), on the north face by les Corridors, with guides
Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and J. Bouillet (of
la Grave), 21 June
1876 - South
arête of
Le Râteau with Jakob Anderegg and Andreas Maurer, 3 July
1876 - Southeast arête of
Finsteraarhorn with Jakob Anderegg and Kaspar Maurer, 15 July[5][6]
1876 - Couloir Cordier on the northeast face of the
Aiguille Verte 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[1][5][6][7]
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[6]
1876 -
Les Droites (east summit, highest point at 4,000 metres (13,000 ft)), with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and guides Johann Jaun and Andreas Maurer, 7 August[1]
1876 - Attempt at the north arête of
Piz Bernina, 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[2][4][5]
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.[1][2][5][8] 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.[2][5] 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.[9]
Cordier's body was recovered the next morning forty feet below the location of his disappearance.[5][8] The corpse was photographed by
Henry Duhamel at La Bérarde.[10] Henri Cordier was 21 years old.[2][7]
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
Aiguille Verte and the Cordier route on the north face of
Les Courtes (both in the Mont Blanc massif).
^
abFrison-Roche, Roger; Jouty, Sylvain (1996). A History of Mountain Climbing. Trans. Deke Dusinberre.
Paris, New York:
Flammarion. pp. 83, 319.
ISBN2-08013-622-4.
LCCN96-85980.
OCLC36019037. This book incorrectly gives the year of the Aiguille Verte climb as 1875.
^Béraldi, Henri (1898–1904). Cent ans aux Pyrénées [One hundred years in the Pyrenees]. Paris.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link) Seven volumes. Reissue by "Les Amis du Livre Pyrénéen",
Pau, 1977.