Alps

Mont Aiguille. The 450th anniversary of the ascent of this striking peak of Dauphiny, near Grenoble, known in the Middle Ages as “Mons Inascensibilis,” occurred in 1942. In 1492, Charles VIII, King of France, ordered his chamberlin, Antoine de Ville, to ascend the mountains, which he did, taking as much pains as if he were storming a fortress, using ladders and other “sobtilz engins.” He conducted a goodly company to the top, and built three crosses on the summit meadow to prove to the spectators below that it had really been attained. He heard mass, stayed on the summit for the better part of a week and came safely home again. An available account will be found in Francis Gribble’s The Early Mountaineers.