Emile Rey

Born in 1846 in La Saxe, a hamlet of Courmayeur, Émile Rey is considered to be the guide who, more than any other in his time, knew how to combine technical skill, love for his work, courage and affability indispensable to a correct and modern relationship with the customer-tourist. Despite his lack of schooling (he only attended the village school, which he will regret for the rest of his life), he realises that knowledge of languages is the first step towards the completion of his professionalism: in fact, in addition to his mother tongue French, he speaks Italian and German fluently, and is also understood in English. During the winter, he practises his trade as a carpenter, which he also puts to good use by building several huts in the mountains of the Aosta Valley himself. In 1868, he began his apprenticeship as an aspiring guide, but it was only in 1876 that Rey emerged from anonymity, thanks to his meeting with Lord Wentworth, with whom he made the first ascents of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey in the Mont Blanc massif, and the Punta Giordano in the Jumeaux group, in the Matterhorn valley. In 1879, it was the turn of the Matterhorn itself, but climbed from the Zmutt ridge, in second place, three days after Albert Frederick Mummery and Burgener's first. The lack of the stimulus of the 'race for the record' made this ascent the first 'sport' ascent in history. Increasingly the darling of wealthy foreign amateur mountaineers, Émile Rey became highly sought-after: between 1882 and 1884 he was engaged for four months of the year with Mr Carus Cunningham, who also invited him to England; he took the opportunity to climb Ben Nevis in a curious first: that of the first guide from the Alps to climb the main British peak. In our roundup of Rey's main mountaineering exploits, we cannot leave out the one of 5 January 1888: the first winter ascent of Mont Blanc from the Rochers route, in the company of Alessandro, Corradino and Vittorio Sella, and fellow Breuil guides Jean-Joseph, David and Baptiste Maquignaz. One last feat, the most technically relevant, dates back to 1892, when he completed the first ascent of the Aiguille Blanche ridge from Peuterey to Mont Blanc in 82 hours, together with Berliner Paul Güssfeldt, Swiss guide Christian Klucker and porter Cesare Ollietti. At the time, it was considered the most difficult climb ever. In reality, the list of memorable exploits is very long: one of his biographers, Jules Brocherel, enumerates 51 firsts, taking into account all the variants Rey put in place; but today what is most important is to remember his mental approach to the mountains and to the profession of guide: Ce n'est pas le gain qui me pousse sur les sommets, he said, c'est la grande passion que j'ai pour la montagne. J'ai toujours considéré la récompense comme chose secondaire à ma vie de guide. (Translation: It is not the gain that drives me to the summits, it is the great passion I have for the mountains. I have always considered the fee as a secondary thing in my life as a guide). On 24 August 1895, Émile Rey fell from the gum of the Giant's Tooth, in a spot that was considered not very risky; he was untied. Somehow he had also been prescient in this case, saying in fact: Je sens, je prévois qu'un jour ou l'autre, on me recueillera dans une crevasse: ce ne sera point le danger qui m'aura tué, mais un caprice de la montagne. Je l'ai trop aimée et vaincue, pour qu'elle ne se venge pas sur moi! (Translation: I feel, I foresee that one day or another I will be picked up in a crevasse: but it will not be the danger that will have killed me, but a whim of the mountain. I have loved and conquered it too much for it not to take revenge on me!).