MOUNT VINSON PAINTED BY DAVID ROSENTHAL

DAVID ROSENTHAL (bn. 1953)
Mount Vinson  (4,892 m - 16,050 ft)
Antarctica

The mountain 

Mount Vinson  (4,892 m -16,050 ft)is the highest peak in Antarctica  and it is part of the seven highest summits  in the world among:  

Mount Everest (8,848m), Aconcagua (6,961m), Mt Denali or Mc Kinley (6,194m),  Kilimandjaro (5,895m), Mt Elbrus (5,642m), Mt Blanc (4,807m) and Mount Kosciuszko  (2,228m) in Australia.
Mount Vinson lies in the north part of Vinson Massif’s summit plateau in the south portion of the main ridge of the Sentinel Range about 2 kilometres  north of Hollister Peak. It was first climbed in 1966. An expedition in 2001 was the first to climb via the Eastern route, and also took GPS measurements of the height of the peak. As of February 2010, 1,400 climbers have attempted to reach the top of Mount Vinson.

Vinson Massif  is a large mountain massif that is 21 km (13 mi) long and 13 km (8.1 mi) wide and lies within the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. It overlooks the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. The massif is located about 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) from the South Pole. Vinson Massif was discovered in January 1958 by U.S. Navy aircraft. In 1961, the Vinson Massif was named by USACAN, for Carl G. Vinson, United States congressman from the state of Georgia, for his support for Antarctic exploration. On Nov. 1, 2006, USACAN declared Mount Vinson and Vinson Massif to be separate entities.

Climbing 

In 1963, two groups within the American Alpine Club, one led by Charles Hollister and Samuel C. Silverstein, M.D., then in New York, and the other led by Peter Schoening of Seattle, Washington, began lobbying the National Science Foundation to support an expedition to climb Mount Vinson. The two groups merged in spring 1966 at the urging of the National Science Foundation and the American Alpine Club, Nicholas Clinch was recruited by the American Alpine Club to lead the merged expeditions. Officially named the American Antarctic Mountaineering Expedition 1966/67, the expedition was sponsored by the American Alpine Club and theNational Geographic Society,, and supported in the field by the U.S. Navy and the National Science Foundation Office of Antarctic Programs. Ten scientists and mountaineers participated in AAME 1966/67. In addition to Clinch they were Barry Corbet, John Evans (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN), Eiichi Fukushima (University of Washington, Seattle, WA), Charles Hollister, Ph.D. (Columbia University, New York, NY), William Long, Ph.D. (Alaska Methodist University, Anchorage, AK), Brian Marts, Peter Schoening, Samuel Silverstein, M.D. (Rockefeller University, New York, NY) and Richard Wahlstrom.

In the months prior to its departure for Antarctica the expedition received considerable press attention, primarily because of the reports that Woodrow Wilson Sayre was planning to fly in a Piper Apache piloted by Max Conrad, the "flying Grandfather", with four companions into the Sentinel Range to climb the Mount Vinson. Sayre had a reputation for problematic trips as a result of his unauthorized, unsuccessful, and nearly fatal attempt to climb Mount Everest from the North in 1962. His unauthorized incursion into Tibet led China to file an official protest with the U.S. State Department. In the end, the purported race did not materialize as Conrad had difficulties with his plane. According to press reports, he and Sayre were still in Buenos Aires on the day the first four members of AAME 1966/67 reached Mount Vinson's summit.

In December 1966 the Navy transported the expedition and its supplies from Christchurch, New Zealand to the U.S. base at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, and from there in a ski-equipped C-130 Hercules to the Sentinel Range. All members of the expedition reached the summit of Mount Vinson. The first group of four climbers summited on December 18, 1966, four more on December 19, and the last three on December 20.

On August 17, 2006, from nomination by Damien Gildea of the Omega Foundation, US-ACAN approved naming the subsidiary peaks south of Mount Vinson for the AAME 1966/67 members Nicholas Clinch, Barry Corbet, Eiichi Fukushima, Charles Hollister, Brian Marts, Samuel Silverstein, Peter Schoening and Richard Wahlstrom. Other peaks in the Sentinel Range had previously been named for John Evans and William Long.

Gavin Bate ascending Mount Vinson in 2000

The climb of Vinson offers little technical difficulty beyond the usual hazards of travel in Antarctica, and as one of the Seven Summits, it has received much attention from well-funded climbers in recent years. Multiple guide companies offer guided expeditions to Mount Vinson, at a typical cost of around $30,000 per person, including transportation to Antarctica from Chile.

Reference

 - Mount Vinson Wikipedia Page 

The artist 
David Rosenthal is known as an Antarctic Painter, Painter of Ice, Arctic Artist, Alaskan Artist and an Extreme Artist. He has been lured to cold climates regularly to record snow, ice, and landscapes. Davids paintings of glaciers and icebergs are astoundingly realistic and at the same ethereal at the same time. However his work also includes much more than ice, icebergs and glaciers... Cordova, Alaska is the place David Rosenthal calls home. As an artist and art teacher David has taught and continues to teach many students in Alaska. While teaching art in Alaska, David has instructed students and artist in many programs including the Alaska Artists in the Schools Program, Prince William Sound Community College and University of Alaska Fairbanks Summer Sessions. Alaskan artist David Rosenthal makes it a priority to travel around Alaska as much as possible to continue to capture the incredible beauty in his artwork of Alaska.
Having spent over sixty months on the Ice, including four austral winters and six austral summers, David became an Antarctic artist and has created art images from a large variety of places in every season. David has completed paintings of the antarctic landscape from all across Antarctica. Time in Antarctica included travel as a participant in the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program during a summer and a winter at McMurdo Station as well as most of a winter at Palmer Station. David has also worked for the NSF contractor for two winters and four summers in various job capacities as a way to spend time and become familiar with the landscape.
Rosenthal's work also includes many water colors, oil paintings, sketches and small studies. The paintings seem to magically reflect the intensity of nature's colors and the atmospheric phenomena that David witnesses. The images in these galleries have been created during his travels from 1977 to the present 2016.  David really is a master of Extreme Art!
Source:
- David Rosenthal website

 

_______________________________
2016 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau  

MONTE DARWIN PAINTED BY ROCKWELL KENT

ROCKWELL KENT  (1882 - 1971)

Monte Darwin (2,438 m - 7,999ft)

Tierra del fuego - Chile 

The mountain 

Monte Darwin (2,438 m - 7,999ft) is a peak in Tierra del Fuego (Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic area) forming part of the Cordillera Darwin, the southernmost range of the Andes, just to the north of the Beagle Channel. It is formed of crystalline schists and has massive glaciers down its steep southern slopes. Monte Darwin was for a long time considered as the highest peak in Tierra del Fuego, but that distinction corresponds to a mountain unofficially named Monte Shipton, which is about 2,580 m (8,460 ft) high and is located at 54°39′33″S 69°35′54″W.   Monte Shipton was first climbed in 1962 by Eric Shipton, E. Garcia, F. Vivanco and C. Marangunic. Monte Darwin was first climbed in  1970 by M. Andrews, N. Banks, M. Taylor, P. Radcliffe and P. James,  N. Bennett and R. Heffernan. Both peaks are best climbed in late December, January, February and March. 

Mount Darwin was given its name during the voyage of the Beagle by HMS Beagle's captain Robert FitzRoy to celebrate Charles Darwin's 25th birthday on 12 February 1834. A year earlier FitzRoy had named an expanse of water to the southwest of the mountain the Darwin Sound to commemorate Darwin's quick wit and courage in saving them from being marooned when waves from a mass of ice splitting off a glacier threatened their boats.

The mountain is part of Alberto de Agostini National Park.

Sources: 

- Victory Adventures expeditions

The painter

Rockwell Kent, artist, author, and political activist, had a long  and varied career. During his lifetime, he worked as an architectural draftsman, illustrator, printmaker, painter, lobsterman, ship's carpenter, and dairy farmer. Born in Tarrytown Heights, New York, he lived in Maine, Newfoundland, Alaska, Greenland, and the Adirondacks and explored the waters around Tierra del Fuego in a small boat. Kent's paintings, lithographs, and woodcuts often portrayed the bleak and rugged aspects of nature; a reflection of his life in harsh climates.His experience as a carpenter and builder and his familiarity with tools served him well when he took up the graphic process. His blocks were marvels of beautiful cutting, every line deliberate and under perfect control. The tones and lines in his lithography were solidly built up, subtle, and full of color. He usually made preliminary studies- old-mater style- for composition or detail before starting on a print. Nothing was vague or accidental about his work; his expression was clear and deliberate. Neither misty tonalities nor suggestiveness were to his taste. He was a highly objectified art - clean, athletic, sometimes almost austere and cold. He either recorded adventures concretely, or dealt in ideas. His studio was a model of the efficient workshop: neat, orderly, with everything in its place. His handwriting, the fruit of his architectural training, was beautiful and precise.
When Kent died of a heart attack in 1971, The New York Times described him as "... a thoughtful, troublesome, profoundly independent, odd and kind man who made an imperishable contribution to the art of bookmaking in the United States."  Richer, more accurate accounts of the scope of the artist's influential career as a painter and writer have since superseded this cursory summing-up of an American life. Retrospectives of the artist's paintings and drawings have been mounted, most recently by The Rooms in St. John's, Newfoundland, where the exhibition Pointed North: Rockwell Kent in Newfoundland and Labrador was curated by Caroline Stone in the summer of 2014. Other recent exhibitions include the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery and Owen D. Young Library at St. Lawrence University (Canton, New York) in the autumn of 2012; the Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, Maine) during the spring through autumn of 2012; the Bennington Museum in Vermont during the summer of 2012; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the spring through summer of 2012. An exhibition marking the centennial of Kent's time in Winona, Minnesota, took place there in 2013. Among the many notes of increasing awareness of Kent's contributions to American culture is the reproduction of one of Kent's pen-and-ink drawings from Moby Dick on a U.S. postage stamp, part of the 2001 commemorative panel celebrating such American illustrators as Maxfield Parrish, Frederic Remington, and Norman Rockwell.
Noted American and Canadian writers in recent years have found much gold to mine in Kent's improbable personal and public life. The year he spent in Newfoundland, for example, is fictionally (and very loosely) recalled by Canadian writer Michael Winter in The Big Why, his 2004 Winterset Award-winning novel. And certain qualities of the protagonist of Russell Banks's 2008 novel The Reserve are inspired by aspects of Kent's complex personality. Kent's work also figures in Steve Martin's 2010 novel An Object of Beauty and is the subject of a chapter in Douglas Brinkley's 2011 history The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom: 1879–1960.
The Archives of American Art is the repository for Kent's voluminous correspondence.

Source: 

- Short Biography byPlattsburgh State Art Museum 

JABAL QASIYUN BY FREDERIC GADMER

FREDERIC GADMER (1878-1954)

Jabal Qāsiyūn (1,151 m -3,776 ft)
Syria

Autochrome Lumière process, 1921, Albert Kahn Museum, Paris 

Mountain 

Jabal Qāsiyūn (1,151 m - 3,776 ft) or Mount Qasioun (Arabic: جبل قاسيون‎‎ ) is a mountain overlooking the city of Damascus, Syria, part of the Anti-Lebanon Range of mountains (Arabic: Al-jabal Ash-sharqī, or Lubnān Ash-sharqī, Anti Liban in french).  As the city has expanded over the years, some districts have been established on the foot of the mountain. 

The mountain has been heavily entrenched with Syrian government forces since the start of the Syrian Civil War. The mountain is also host to an endemic species of iris, Iris damascena, which can be found on the steep eastern slopes, at an altitude of 1,200 m (3,900 ft) above sea level. 

Jabal Qāsiyūn is known to be a sacred mountain, a place in which several stories written in the Bible as well as in Quran took place.  

On the slopes of Jabal Qasiun is a cave steeped in legend. It is said to have been inhabited at one point by the first human-being, Adam; and there are various stories told about Ibrāhīm (Abraham), and 'Īsā (Jesus) also having prayed in it. 

It is mentioned however in Medieval Arab history books as having been the place where Qābīl (Cain) killed Hābīl (Abel).  It was known for hundreds of years as a place where prayers were immediately accepted, and especially in times of drought rulers of Damascus would climb to the cave and pray for rain. Because of the murder that took place there, claimed to be the first committed, it is called Maghārat al-Dam (the Cave of Blood).  

According to Sunni Muslims, Mount Qasioun is the site of the miḥrābs (prayer niches) of the 40 arch-saints, known as the Abdāl, who are said to pray the night vigil prayers every night. A small mosque has been built over the Cave of Blood containing these miḥrābs.

Further down the mountain from the 'Cave of Blood', there was another cave known as Maghārat al-Jūˁ (the Cave of Hunger). Stories about this cave are somewhat confused. Al-Harawī, who lived in the 13th century, wrote that it is said that forty prophets died there of hunger. At present, the cave has been concealed by surrounding houses, but that spot is called al-Juyūˁīyah (the Place of the Hungry').

On another flank of the same mountain is yet another cave, which has come down in local legend as being the cave of the Seven Sleepers, mentioned in early Christian sources, as well as in the Quran, where they are known as the Aṣḥāb al-Kahf (Companions of the Cave). This is rather dubious, however, and it is only one of many caves in this part of the world that share the claim. 

A madrassah has been built over the cave, but pilgrims are still granted access.
Source: 
- Mount Qasioun Wikipedia page 

The photographer 

Frédéric Georges Gadmer was born in 1878 in France into a Protestant family;  his father, Leon, son of Swiss émigré, was confectioner, and his mother, Marie Georgine, was unemployed. Before World War II, he follows his family in Paris and works as a photographer for the house Vitry, located Quai de la Rapée. As an heliogravure company, it performs work for the sciences and the arts, travel and education. In 1898 Gadmer completed his military service as a secretary to the staff then recalled in 1914 at the time of mobilization. In 1915, he joined the newly created  "Photographic Section of the Army" and carried pictures on the front, in the Dardanelles, with General Gouraud, then in Cameroon. In 1919, at age 41, he was hired as a photographer byAlbert Khan for his project called "Archives of the Planet". He finds there his comrades of   "the film and photographic section of the army" Paul Castelnau and Fernand Cuville. Soon as he arrived, he made reports in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Palestine. It was the first to make a color portrait of Mustafa Kemal, leader of the Young Turks. In 1921, he returned to the Levant with Jean Brunhes, the scientific director of the Archives of the Planet. The same year, he attended General Gouraud, appointed High Commissioner in Syria. Operator and prolific photographer, specializing in distant lands and landscapes, it covers Iraq, Persia, Afghanistan, Algeria and Tunisia. In 1930, he accompanied Father Francis Aupiais in Dahomey. He also works in Europe. In 1931, at the request of Marechal Lyautey, he photographies the Colonial Exhibition. It is one of the last person to leave the  "Archives of the Planet" threatened by the Albert Kahn's bankruptcy in 1932. He then worked at the famous french newspaper L'Illustration and carries postcards for Yvon. He died in Paris, unmarried, in 1954 and is buried in Saint-Quentin, as his parents.

Source: 

- Frédéric Gadmer in the Médiathèque Albert Kahn

About the  "Autochrome Lumière" Photos

The autochrome is a photographic reproduction of process colors patented December 17, 1903 by Auguste and Louis Lumière french brothers. This is the first industrial technique of photography colors, it produces positive images on glass plates. It was used between 1907 and 1932 approximately an particularly in many pictures of the World War I. A important number of photographs of mountains and landscapes around the world was made with this technique, particularly in the for  the Project "The archives of the planet" by Albert Kahn. 

MOUNT VESUVIUS BY ALEXANDRE-HYACINTHE DUNOUY

ALEXANDRE-HYACINTHE DUNOUY (1757-1841) 
 Mount Vesuvius (1, 281m - 4,203 ft current)

Italy

In  L'éruption du Vésuve en 1813, Château de Fontainebleau, France

The mountain 

Mount Vesuvius (1,281 meters- 4,203 ft current) is one of those legendary and mythic mountains  the Earth paid regularly tribute. Monte Vesuvio in Italian modern langage or Mons Vesuvius in antique Latin langage is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples (Italy) about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. 

It is one of several volcanoes which form the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera caused by the collapse of an earlier and originally much higher structure.

Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD 79 that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman antique cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and several other settlements. That eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ash, and fumes to a height of 33 km (20.5 mi), spewing molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing a hundred thousand times the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima bombing. At least 1,000 people died in the eruption. The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus.

Vesuvius has erupted many times since and is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years. Nowadays, it is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the population of 3,000,000 people living nearby and its tendency towards explosive eruptions (said Plinian eruptions). It is the most densely populated volcanic region in the world.

Vesuvius was formed as a result of the collision of two tectonic plates, the African and the Eurasian. The former was subducted beneath the latter, deeper into the earth. As the water-saturated sediments of the oceanic African plate were pushed to hotter depths in the earth, the water boiled off and caused the melting point of the upper mantle to drop enough to create partial melting of the rocks. Because magma is less dense than the solid rock around it, it was pushed upward. Finding a weak place at the Earth's surface it broke through, producing the volcano.

he area around Vesuvius was officially declared a national park on June 5, 1995. The summit of Vesuvius is open to visitors and there is a small network of paths around the mountain that are maintained by the park authorities on weekends.

There is access by road to within 200 metres (660 ft) of the summit (measured vertically), but thereafter access is on foot only. There is a spiral walkway around the mountain from the road to the crater.

The first funicular cable car on Mount Vesuvius opened in 1880. It was later destroyed by the 1944 eruption. "Funiculì, Funiculà", a famous Neapolitan song with lyrics by journalist Peppino Turco set to music by composer Luigi Denza, commemorates its opening. 




The  painter 

Alexandre-Hyacinthe Dunouy (1757–1841) was a French painter known for his landscapes.

A native of Paris, Dunouy began his career depicting views of the city and the surrounding region, exhibiting a views of the area around Rome and Naples he painted in the 1780's

at the Paris Salon in 1791. He went back Italy in 1810 under the patronage of Joachim Murat, made king of Naples by Napoleon 1st,  whose he married the sister Caroline. Dunouy became the official painter of the King of Naples and of his wife Caroline Bonaparte. At this time, he painted  studies for the decorations of the Royal Palace of Portici. Therefore, Dunouy frequently receives  orders from the french Imperial family, as views of the castle of Mortefontaine for Joseph Bonaparte, an other of the Emperor's brother.

in 1815, after the exil of Napoleon and the fall of the First French Empire, Dunouy left Italy but does not cease its activity.  HE continue to paint for the next regime and  received from king Louis XVIII, for a view of  Eruption of Mount Vesuvius (the one reproduced above). This painting entrusts the kink to ask Dunouy to realize decorations projects for the Trianon, Compiègne Castle and St. Cloud castle.  His paintings, of small dimensions, are primarily decorative. It is usually presented as classical compositions abounding details. His work follows in the footsteps of Jean-Victor Bertin and Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidault. Some of his works include elements painted by Jean-Louis Demarne and Nicolas-Antoine Taunay. He continued to exhibit regularly until 1833 and became the master of Achille-Etna Michallon.  He received  medals  in 1819 and 1827. He is also associated with the Auvergne, Savoy, and the area around Lyon. 

Source: 
- Dunouy in BnF catalogue général 

2 others paintings of Vesuvius on this blog: 

- Antique roman first known picture 

- Vesuvius series by Andy Warhol

ATITLAN & TOLIMAN VOLCANOS BY ARTHUR P. COLEMAN (1852-1939)

ARTHUR P. COLEMAN (1852-1939)

  Atitlбn (3,535 m -11,598ft) & Tolimбn  (3,158 m -10,361ft) 

Guatemala 

In Atitlan and Tolimon seen from Lake Atitlan, 1937, watercolor, 

The mountains

Atitlбn volcano  (3,535 m - 11,598 ft)  is a large, conical, active stratovolcano adjacent to the caldera of Lake Atitlбn in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas range. It is within the Sololб Department, northern Guatemala. The volcano has been quite active historically, with more than a dozen eruptions recorded between 1469 and 1853, the date of its most recent eruption. Atitlбn is part of the Central American Volcanic Arc. The arc is a chain of volcanoes stretching along Central America formed by subduction of the Cocos Plate underneath the Caribbean Plate. This volcano is part of the Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean. Atitlбn is home to two particularly rare and beautiful birds that are endemic to the cloud forests of this region. The horned guan (Oreophasis derbianus) is a Pleistocene relic of the Cracidae family that persists today only in small fragments of its previous range. Its habitat is limited to cloud forests above approximately 1,650 metres (5,410 ft). This bird is the size of a turkey and the adult male has a one-inch scarlet-colored "horn" projecting straight up from the top of its head. The Cabanis's or azure-rumped tanager (Tangara cabanisi) is probably the most restricted-range species in the region. It occurs only at mid-elevations within the Sierra Madre del Sur of Chiapas, Mexico and western Guatemala. Atitlбn lies on the southern rim of the caldera, while Volcano San Pedro and Volcano Tolimбn lie within the caldera. San Pedro is the oldest of the three and seems to have stopped erupting about 40,000 years ago. Tolimбn began growing after San Pedro stopped erupting, and probably remains active, although it has not erupted in historic times. Atitlбn has developed almost entirely in the last 10,000 years and remains active, with its most recent eruption having occurred in 1853.




Tolimбn volcano  (3,158 m -10,361 ft) is located on the southern shores of Lago de Atitlбn. The volcano  was formed near the southern margin of the Pleistocene Atitlбn III caldera. The top of the volcano has a shallow crater and its flanks are covered with the thick remains of ancient lava flows that emerged from vents in the volcano's flanks. A parasitic lava dome, known as Cerro de Oro, was formed on the volcano's northern flank, which may have erupted a few thousand years ago.




San Pedro volcano  (3,020m -9,908 ft) (also named Las Yeguas) represented in the foggy background of in the Coleman painting, is the third stratovolcano on the shores of Lago de Atitlбn, in the Solol Department of northern Guatemala. At its base is the village of San Pedro La Laguna.




The first volcanic activity in the region occurred about 11 million years ago, and since then the region has seen four separate episodes of volcanic growth and caldera collapse, the most recent of which began about 1.8 million years ago and culminated in the formation of the present caldera. The lake now fills a large part of the caldera, reaching depths of up to 600 metres.

The caldera-forming eruption is known as Los Chocoyos eruption and ejected up to 300 km3 (72 cu mi) of tephra. The enormous eruption dispersed ash over an area of some 6 million kmІ: it has been detected from Florida to Ecuador, and can be used as a stratigraphic marker in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans (known as Y-8 ash in marine deposits). A chocoyo is a type of bird which is often found nesting in the relatively soft ash layer.

On February 4, 1976, a massive earthquake (magnitude 7.5) struck Guatemala, killing more than 26,000 people. The earthquake fractured the lake bed and caused subsurface drainage from the lake, allowing the water level to drop two meters within one month

The artist 

Arthur Philemon Coleman was a Canadian a geologist, professor, minerals prospector, artist, Rockies explorer, backwoods canoeist, world traveller, scientist, popular lecturer, museum administrator, memoirist and...  one of Canada’s most beloved scientist. 

Arthur Coleman is a fine example of that rare bird, a polished amateur artist whose drawings and paintings stand comfortably beside those of many professionals. He was active during the time when sketching and painting was ceding to photography the task of recording the visible world. Although he was also a photographer, painting was, for him, both a poetic and a descriptive pursuit, a way of wrapping an artistic expression around a phenomenon he was interested in or moved by. Thus motivated, Coleman's paintings give much joy and command a good deal of respect. The more surprising, perhaps given that he used to introduced himself more as a geologist than a painter.

Coleman travelled throughout the United States for professional conferences as well as geological field work.  He visited many of the major American mountain ranges including: the American Cordillera Mountains (Washington, Oregon and California); the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California and Nevada); Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho); and the Appalachian Mountains (eastern United States). Pleistocene glaciation had extended in Northern Europe as far south as Berlin and London and covered an area of two million square miles. Coleman also visited such countries as India, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Scandinavia, Bolivia, New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay. In his final years he made two expeditions to the Andes in Colombia, to mountains in Southern Mexico and to two mountains in Central America.  He achieved the first ascent of Castle Mountain in 1884, and in 1907, he was the first white man to attempt to climb Mount Robson. He made a total of eight exploratory trips to the Canadian Rockies, wholly four of them looking for the mythical giants of Hooker and Brown. 

From 1901 to 1922, he was a Professor of Geology at the University of Toronto and was Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1919 to 1922. From 1931 to 1934, he was a geologist with the Department of Mines of the Government of Ontario. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1900 and was its President in 1921. In 1929, he was appointed Honorary Vice-President of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

 "Mount Coleman" and "Coleman Glacier" in Banff National Park is named in his honor.  He was awarded the Penrose Medal in 1936.

He planned to climb "hi" mountain, "Mount Coleman"'in the Albertan Rockies, and had also prepared a trip to British Guiana, but death intervened.

He was author of:

- Reports on the Economic Geology of Ontario (1903)

- Lake Ojibway; Last of the Great Glacial Lakes (1909) 

- The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails (1911)

- Ice Ages, Recent and Ancient (1926), and was co-author of Elementary Geology (1922).

- The Last Million Years (1941) edited by George F. Kay

THE '"DENTS DU MIDI" PAINTED BY GUSTAVE COURBET

GUSTAVE COURBET (1819-1877)

 Les Dents du Midi (3,114 m to 3,257 m -10,216 ft to10,685 ft) 

Switzerland 

1. Grand panorama des Alpes, 1877, The Cleveland Museum of Art 

2. Panorama des Alpes, 1876, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

The painter 

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.

Courbet's paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects. Courbet's subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character: landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes and still lifes. He was imprisoned for six months in 1871 for his involvement with the Paris Commune, and lived in exile in Switzerland from 1873 until his death.

Courbet  painted a few mountains in his life : the Juras mountains around Ornans ( France) and a few  mountains in Switzerland during his exil; Like many painters of the 19th Century, Courbet didn't name the mountain he painted; he liked to give a description of the general atmosphere rather than  a precise geographical location.  The painting "Grand panorama des Alpes"  which includes the Dents du Midi mountain, is among the latest paintings he did, during the year he died. An other one shown here is  anterior one year and is is kept in, Geneva in the  MAH (Museum of Art and History).  

 "I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty."

The mountain 

See  The Dents du midi already posted in this blog

MOUNT ATHABASCA PAINTED BY ARTHUR P. COLEMAN

ARTHUR P. COLEMAN (1852-1939)

Mount Athabasca  (3,491m - 11,453ft)

Canada

1. In Athabasca near Wicox pass, 1807, watercolour, Private coll.

2.  In Athabasca near Wilcox Pass between Saskatchewan & Athabasca,watercolour, Private coll.  

3.  In  Up the Athabasca from Junction of Sunwapta, 1893, drawing, Private coll. 

The mountain 

Mount Athabasca (3,491m - 11,453ft) or Athabaska, is located in the Columbia Icefield of  Jasper National Park  in Canada. Athabasca is the Cree Indian name for "where there are reeds" which originally referred to Lake Athabasca.The first known Europeans to discover this peak in 1896 were Walter Wilcox, Robert Barrett and their two guides. They made an attempt to climb the peak but were unsuccessful.The mountain was named in 1898 by J. Norman Collie and ,Herman Woolley who made the first ascent on August 18 of that year. This climb of the mountain was the result of nineteen days of travel and searching on horseback and on foot, beginning in Lake Louise. It is a lot easier today.

After Mount Robson and Mount Temple, Mt. Athabasca may be the most well-known peak in the Canadian Rockies. It was my first Canadian alpine ascent and the same goes for many. The surrounding area include, Mt Andreomeda, Snow Dome, Mt. Kitchener, Mt Wilcox and Nigel Peak.

Definitely a main climbing and tourist attraction in the area.


Climbing 

There are several climbing routes, including:  North Glacier (Normal Route), Silverhorn, AA Col II, Regular North Face III 5.8, North Ridge III 5.5, The Hourglass 300m, III, AI3-4. One of the most prominent features of Mount Athabasca is a horned-shaped tip near the top called the "Silverhorn". The Silverhorn is one of the easier routes to the summit but requires more caution and ability than the normal route because of Blue ice and falling ice from other parties. Although not apparent from the typical roadside view of the mountain, the south side of Silverhorn actually contains a scrambling route but one must still cross the north glacier to get to it. From the top of the Silverhorn, the summit is a rather easy 15-minute plod in good summer weather over the narrow snow-covered summit ridge.

Sources: 

- Mount Athabaska page in summit post.org 

- The Alpine Club of Canada 

- Parks Canada

The artist 

Arthur Philemon Coleman Biography in this blog

MONS HADLEY SEEN BY NASA APOLLO 15 MISSION

NASA APOLLO 15 MISSION (July, 26, 1971- August  7, 1971)

Mons Hadley (4,600m -15,091ft) 

The Moon 

1.  Jim Irwin, the Lunar Rover from Apollo 15 and Mons Hadley in the background 

2. Mons Hadley photographed from Apollo 15 before landing July 30, 1971, 22:16:29

3. Mons Hadley ©The Lunar Institute Map. 

The mountain

Mons Hadley (4,600m -15,091ft ) is  the second highest mountain on the Moon, the first being Mons Huyghens (5, 500m - 18,044ft.  Mons Hadley is a massif in the northern portion of the Montes Apenninus, a range in the northern hemisphere of the Moon. The selenographic coordinates of this peak are  26.5° N, 4.7° E. It has a maximum diameter of 25 km at the base.

To the southwest of this mountain is a valley that served as the landing site for the Apollo 15 expedition. To the southwest of this same valley is the slightly smaller Mons Hadley Delta (δ) peak with a height of about 3.5 km. The coordinates of this peak are 25.8° N, 3.8° E. To the west of these peaks is the sinuous Rima Hadley rille where the Fallen Astronaut memorial has been placed in memory of those astronauts who died in the advancement of space exploration.

These features were named after John Hadley.

This sinuous lunar rille follows a course generally to the northeast, toward the Mons Hadley peak, for which it is named. This feature is centered at selenographic coordinates 25.0° N, 3.0° E, and lies within a diameter of 80 km. It begins at the crater Béla, an elongated formation with the long axis oriented to the northwest.  

Sources: 

- Lunar and Planetary Institute

The mission 

Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the United States' Apollo program, the fourth to land on the Moon, and the eighth successful manned mission. It was the first of what were termed 

"J missions", long stays on the Moon, with a greater focus on science than had been possible on previous missions. It was also the first mission on which the Lunar Roving Vehicle was used.

The mission began on July 26, 1971, and ended on August 7. At the time, NASA called it the most successful manned flight ever achieved.

Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin spent three days on the Moon, including 18Ѕ hours outside the spacecraft on lunar extra-vehicular activity (EVA). The mission landed near Hadley rille, in an area of the Mare Imbrium called Palus Putredinus (Marsh of Decay). The crew explored the area using the first lunar rover, which allowed them to travel much farther from the Lunar Module (LM) than had been possible on missions without the rover. They collected 77 kilograms (170 lb) of lunar surface material. At the same time, Command Module Pilot Alfred Worden orbited the Moon, using a Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) in the Service Module (SM) to study the lunar surface and environment in great detail with a panoramic camera, a gamma-ray spectrometer, a mapping camera, a laser altimeter, a mass spectrometer, and a lunar sub-satellite deployed at the end of Apollo 15's stay in lunar orbit (an Apollo program first).

The mission successfully accomplished its objectives. Ironically, this mission was one of very few that had been honored with the issue of a commemorative US stamp, with this first use of a lunar rover happening one decade after the first Mercury astronaut launch.

Sources:

- Apollo 15 on Encyclopedia Astronautica

FUJIYAMA / 富士山(n° 33 b) PAINTED BY HOKUSAÏ

KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAÏ (1760-1849) 

Fujiyama / 富士山  (3,776.24 m -12,389 ft)
Japan 

South Breeeze, Fine Weather (1830-35), early print, n° 33 from the series 36 Views of Mt. Fuji

 University of Wisconsin Madison

About the 36 views of Mount Fuji 

Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景 Fugaku Sanjūrokkei) is a series of landscape prints　created by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (1760?1849). The series depicts Mount Fuji from different locations and in various seasons and weather conditions. The original thirty-six prints were so popular that Hokusai expanded the series by ten. 

The earliest impressions appear faded when compared to the versions usually seen, but are closer to Hokusai's original conception. The original prints have a deliberately uneven blue sky, which increases the sky's brightness and gives movement to the clouds. The peak is brought forward with a halo of Prussian blue. Subsequent prints have a strong, even blue tone and the printer added a new block, overprinting the white clouds on the horizon with light blue. Later prints also typically employ a strong benigara (Bengal red) pigment, which lent the painting its common name of Red Fuji. The green block colour was recut, lowering the meeting point between forest and mountain slope.

The artist
Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾 北斎)  was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景 c. 1831) which includes the internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s.
Hokusai created the "Thirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji " both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. In this series, Mt Fuji is painted on different meteorological conditions, in different hours of the days, in different seasons and from different places.

The mountain 
This is the legendary Mount Fuji or Fujiyama (富士山).
It is located on Honshu Island and is the highest mountain peak in Japan at 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft). Several names are attributed to it:  "Fuji-san", "Fujiyama" or, redundantly, "Mt. Fujiyama". Usually Japanese speakers refer to the mountain as "Fuji-san".  The other Japanese names for Mount Fuji,  have become obsolete or poetic like: Fuji-no-Yama (ふじの山 - The Mountain of Fuji), Fuji-no-Takane (ふじの高嶺- The High Peak of Fuji), Fuyō-hō (芙蓉峰 - The Lotus Peak), and Fugaku (富岳／富嶽), created by combining the first character of 富士, Fuji, and 岳, mountain.
Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08. Mount Fuji lies about 100 kilometres (60 mi) south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day.
Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone, which is snow-capped several months a year, is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers.
Mount Fuji is one of Japan's Three Holy Mountains (三霊山) along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku. It is also a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and one of Japan's Historic Sites.
It was added to the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site on June 22, 2013. As per UNESCO, Mount Fuji has “inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries”. UNESCO recognizes 25 sites of cultural interest within the Mt. Fuji locality. These 25 locations include the mountain itself, Fujisan Hongū Sengen Shrine and six other Sengen shrines, two lodging houses, Lake Yamanaka, Lake Kawaguchi, the eight Oshino Hakkai hot springs, two lava tree molds, the remains of the Fuji-kō cult in the Hitoana cave, Shiraito Falls, and Miho no Matsubara pine tree grove; while on the low alps of Mount Fuji lies the Taisekiji temple complex, where the central base headquarters of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism is located.

PARINACOTA PAINTED BY RAMOS CATALAN

RAMOS CATALAN (1888-1961)

 Parinacota  (6,348 m - 20,827ft)
Chile - Bolivia

From the series " Mountains of Chile" possibly volcano Parinacota seen from the south 

The Mountain 

Parinacota (6,348 m- 20,827ft) or Parina Quta or Parinaquta is a massive dormant stratovolcano on the border of Chile and Bolivia. Cerros de Payachata, means twin mountains and there are only two peaks in the range. It is usually counted as a sub-range in the Cordillera Occidental. Parinacota is slightly higher than its twin brother/sister Pomerape (6,282m). Both volcanoes are right on the Chilean - Bolivian border and can be climbed from either side. Their closest neighbor is Bolivia's highest mountain Sajama (6,542m) which isn't more than 20km away. Parinacota is located in the extreme NE of Chile, where the country borders to Bolivia. The closest really large city is La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, which is about 300km and five hours away. Arica, in Chile is at the Pacific coast and is about 180 km far (and almost 5000 vertical meters!).

It is part of the Payachata volcanic group. The other major edifice in that group is the Pleistocene peak of Pomerape.  Parinacota's last eruptive phase has been dated using the helium surface exposure technique, which ties the eruption to 290AD ± 300 years.

One of the most dramatic eruptive events in the volcano's past was 8,000 years ago, when a major collapse of the edifice produced a 6 kmі (1.44 cubic miles) debris avalanche, which blocked nearby drainage patterns, creating Chungara Lake.

The volcano and Pomerape straddle the border between Sajama National Park (Bolivia) and Lauca National Park (Chile).

Climbing

Parinacota was first climbed in 1928 by Joseph Prem and Carlos Terán.

Climbing the volcano is  alpine F grade, on a snow/rubble slope of about 35 degrees. A camp can be established at 5,300 m at the saddle between Parinacota and Pomerape. Depending on the season, the main difficulty can be a snow formation called penitentes which make the ascent physically difficult or impossible. It is attempted by about one party per week in the season. If needed, guides and transport can be hired from Sajama village, 27 km away on the Bolivian side of the mountain.

The main climbing season is from late June to mid September. This is the winter season of the southern hemisphere. It's also the time with the lowest precipitation and most stable weather. Between May and September there's almost no risk of any rain or snow at all. 

The painter 

Benito Ramos Catalán (1888-1961) was a chilean  painter who used to sign "Ramos Catalan". Known for his marines and landscapes of the Andes and Chile, particularly his mountains paintings. Most of them have the same title:  "Mountains of Chile" or  "Mountains landscapes of Andes", making quite difficult to know which mountain was exactly depicted, in a country which has quite a lot of summits ! To add to the difficulty, he used to paint the most famous mountains of his country under very unusual angles or with proportions that do not correspond exactly to their real size... making even more difficult to recognize and identify them for experts ! That is why today, 55 years after his death, some of these mountains paintings are not clearly identified and presented, in the public sales, as 'possibly' a particular summit of Chile or Andes...
His works are in many Chilean institutions like  Viña del Mar Fine Art  Museum, O'Higginiano Fine Art Museum in Talca, Valparaiso Fine Art Museum, and Navy Schools in Valparaiso.

2016 - WanderingVertexes
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

THE EIGER PAINTED BY MAXIMILIEN DE MEURON

MAXIMILIEN DE MEURON (1785-1868)

The Eiger (3,970 m -13,020 ft)

Switzerland

1. In Eiger, oil on canvas Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel 
2. In Eiger, watercolour

The mountain 

The Eiger (3,970m- 13,020 ft)  is located in the  Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mцnch to the Jungfrau at (4,158 m-13,642 ft), constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000m -10,000 ft above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its 1,800-metre-high - 5,900 ft north face of rock and ice, named Eigerwand or Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps. This huge face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the homonymous pass connecting the two valleys.

The first ascent of the Eiger was made by Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren and Irishman Charles Barrington, who climbed the west flank on August 11, 1858. 

The north face, considered amongst the most challenging and dangerous ascents, was first climbed in 1938 by an Austrian-German expedition with Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vцrg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek. The Eiger has been highly-publicized for the many tragedies involving climbing expeditions.  

In 1973 : first all female ascent of the face by Wanda Rutkiewicz, Danuta Gellner-Wach and Stefania Egierszdorff. All Polish.

In June 2006, François Bon and Antoine Montant make the first speedflying descent of the Eiger

Since 1935, at least sixty-four climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname Mordwand, literally "murder(ous) wall"—a pun on its correct title of Nordwand (North Wall).

Although the summit of the Eiger can be reached by experienced climbers only, a railway tunnel runs inside the mountain, and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows carved into the rock face. They are both part of the Jungfrau Railway line, running from Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, between the Mцnch and the Jungfrau, at the highest railway station in Europe. The two stations within the Eiger are Eigerwand (behind the north face) and Eismeer (behind the south face), at around 3,000 metres.

The Eiger is mentioned in records dating back to the 13th century, but there is no clear indication of how exactly the peak gained its name. The three mountains of the ridge are commonly referred to as the Virgin (German: Jungfrau – translates to "virgin" or "maiden"), the Monk (Mцnch), and the Ogre (Eiger; the standard German word for ogre is Oger). The name has been linked to the Latin term acer, meaning "sharp" or "pointed", but more commonly to the German eigen, meaning "own".

The painter 

 Maximilien de Meuron is a Swiss painter, born in the castle of Corcelles (Canton of Vaud) in 1785. Born into an aristocratic family, he studied law in Berlin. He then devoted himself to painting landscapes. He trained in Paris and Italy, making outdoor sketches he transcribed on canvas in his studio. He served on the Grand Council of Neuchâtel and contributed to the artistic development of the city. He founded the  Société des Amis des Arts (The Friends of Arts Society).

The State Archives of Neuchâtel retain  thousands of documents about him , mostly his correspondence. These documents provide information about the abundant intellectual and artistic life in Neuchâtel and the Meuron family. The inventory of the fund is available online.

Source

-  Swiss Institute for Art Research

RAS DASHAN PHOTOGRAPHED BY ISS ASTRONAUTS CREW

ISS ASTRONAUTS (EXPEDITION 16)

Ras Dashan  (4,550m- 14,928 ft)

Ethiopia

Courtesy: NASA /ESA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech

The mountain 

Ras Dashan (4,550m-14,928 ft) alternatively  Ras Dejen rās dejen or rās dashen, meaning "head guard" in Amharic, is the highest mountain in Ethiopia and tenth highest mountain of Africa. Part of Simien Mountains National Park ans Simien Range, located in the Gondar, Amhara Region, the more common form of name, "Ras Dashan" is a corruption of its Amharic name, "Ras Dejen", used by the system of the Ethiopian Mapping Authority (EMA) which means "the general who fights in front of the Emperor".

According to Erik Nilsson, Ras Dejen is the eastern peak of the rim of "an enormous volcano, the northern half of which is cut down about [a] thousand metres by numerous ravines, draining into the Takkazzi River." Its western counterpart is Mount Biuat (4,510 meters), separated by the valley of the Meshaha river. The mountain is often place to violent snowfalls during the night, but, since daily and night temperatures vary greatly, the snow is almost completely melted in a few hours (during the hottest period of the year) since temperature may be over 5° celsius by midday. In winter snow falls rarely, since the majority of yearly rainfalls in Ethiopia are in the summer, but if it does it usually lasts for weeks or months.

The first recorded ascent by a Eurasian was in 1841, by the French officers Ferret and Galinier. There is no verifiable evidence of earlier ascents by locals, but the summit climate and conditions are relatively hospitable, and there are nearby high altitude pastoral settlements. A small fort still partially standing at around 4,300 Meter SRTM data.

The Semien Mountains are the highest parts of the Ethiopian Plateau (more than 2,000m -6,560 ft). They are surrounded by a steep, ragged escarpment (step), with dramatic vertical cliffs, pinnacles, and rock spires. Included in the range is the highest point in Ethiopia, Ras Dashen at 4,533m -14,926 ft). The plateau and surrounding areas are made up of basalt rock from massive, flood-like eruptions of lava; these flood basalts are probably more than 3,000 meters thick.

The lavas erupted quickly (in about one million years) 31 million years ago, as the tectonic plate carrying Ethiopia passed above what is known as the Afar hotspot, a localized spot of intense heat or magma production that is not at a tectonic plate boundary. As the tectonic plate passed over the hotspot, the general region of Ethiopia rose in elevation. The uplift encouraged the erosion that cut the highly dramatic canyons that ring the plateau.

Although the plateau lies in the latitude of the Sahara–Arabia deserts, its high altitude makes for a cool, wet climate. In fact, the Semien Mountains are one of the few places in Africa to regularly receive snow, and they receive plentiful rainfall (more than 1,280 millimeters - 55 inches). The moderate climate is shown by light green vegetation on the mountains, compared with the brown canyons, which are hot and dry. The green tinge on the biggest escarpment (trending across the bottom third of the image) is also vegetation, showing that this part of the escarpment also receives more rain than other parts of the escarpment wall. A major canyon cuts the flatter plateau surface (image center), with several more surrounding the plateau. These canyons are hot because they reach low altitudes, more than 2,000 meters below the plateau surface.

The Semien Mountains National Park has been declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for its rugged beauty. In addition, several extremely rare species are found here, such as the Gelada baboon, which has a thick coat to protect against the cold; the critically endangered Walia ibex, which has long, heavy scimitar-like horns; and the Ethiopian wolf, also known as the Semien jackal, which is one of the rarest, and perhaps most endangered canid on Earth.

Source: 
- NASA

The photographer 

This astronaut photograph ISS016-E-10784 was acquired on November 16, 2007, with a Kodak 760C digital camera fitted with a 180 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment. The image was taken by the astronauts crew of the Expedition 16 , and it is provided by the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of the Earth. Caption by M. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, NASA-JSC.

THE BREITHORN PAINTED BY BLANCHE BERTHOUD

BLANCHE BERTHOUD (1864 -1938) 

The Breithorn (4,165 m -13,664 ft)

Switzerland - Italy border

3 views in 1899 (oil on canvas) , 1906 (oil on canvas),

The mountain 

The Breithorn  (4,165 m -13,664 ft)  - which means "broad horn" in german - is a mountain range of the Pennine Alps as well as its highest peak (also called Breithorn Western Summit). The Breithorn is located on the border between Switzerland and Italy. It lies on the main chain of the Alps, approximately halfway between the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa and east of the Theodul Pass. Most of the massif is glaciated and includes several subsidiary peaks, all located east of the main summit: the Western summit (4, 165m), the Middle summit (4,159m),  the Eastern Breithorn-twin also called The Gendarm (4,106m), the Roccia Nera (Schwarzfluh) (4,075m). The main summit is sometimes distinguished by the name Western Breithorn (German: Breithorn (Westgipfel), Italian: Breithorn Occidentale). The nearest settlements are Zermatt (Valais) and St-Jacques (Aosta Valley).

Climbing 

The Breithorn was first climbed in 1813 by Henry Maynard (climber), Joseph-Marie Couttet, Jean Gras, Jean-Baptiste Erin and Jean-Jacques Erin.  East Breithorn was first climbed 16 August 1884 by J.Stafford Anderson. Central Breithorn was first climbed  19 July 1900 by E. Hahn.

Nowadays, the Breithorn is considered the most easily climbed 4,000 m Alpine peak. This is due to the Klein Matterhorn cable car which takes climbers to over 3,820 m (12,700 ft) from Zermatt for a starting point. The standard route (SSW flank) is from the Italian side of the mountain (the south side) and continues over a glacial plateau before climbing to the summit on a 35 degree snow slope. However, inexperienced mountaineers may run into severe difficulty if caution is not taken near cornices or in bad weather. For experienced climbers wanting more of a challenge, the half traverse of the Breithorn crest is another option.

The painter 

Blanche Berthoud was a Swiss painter from the region Neufchatel (Switzerland) who was very active throughout the first half of the 20th century. She was part of the  Société romande des femmes peintres  (Romande Society of Women Painter) founded  by the painter Jeanne Lombard (1865-1945) who defended very fiercely mountain women painters, a world often reserved for men. She made several paintings and watercolors of the Breithorn, one of which was acquired by the Museum of Art and History of Neufchatel.

2016 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau