From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Penhall
(27 October 1858 ? 3 August 1882) was an
English
mountaineer
.
Life and family
[
edit
]
The son of Dr John Penhall
MRCS
LSA
(born 1833 at
St Pancras
,
Middlesex
, in 1871 a
general practitioner
in
Hastings
,
Sussex
),
[1]
Penhall was educated at
Trinity College
,
Cambridge
, where he graduated
BA
in 1881.
[2]
[3]
At the time of the
1881 census
, he was enumerated at Trinity, giving his place of birth as Hastings, Sussex, and his occupation as "No Occ."
[4]
Alpinism
[
edit
]
First ascents
[
edit
]
Penhall made the
first ascent
of a number of peaks and routes in the
Alps
during the
silver age of alpinism
.
Together with
Martin Conway
, G. S. Scriven and guides Ferdinand Imseng and Peter and M. Truffer he made the first ascent (in two and a half hours) of the west face of the
Zinalrothorn
in August 1878.
[5]
With
Albert Frederick Mummery
and guides
Alexander Burgener
and Ferdinand Imseng he made the first ascent of the
Durrenhorn
on 7 September 1879.
[6]
Penhall was involved in a race with Mummery to be the first to climb the Zmutt ridge of the
Matterhorn
, a race which Mummery eventually won. According to Penhall, his interest in finding a new way up the mountain had been kindled by
Edward Whymper
's account of the successful first ascent in 1865 in
Scrambles amongst the Alps
.
[7]
As Mummery and Burgener approached the mountain to attempt the ridge they met Penhall, and guides Ferdinand Imseng and Louis Zurbrucken, who had retreated from the mountain after a bad-weather bivouac on the ridge. After a brief rest in
Zermatt
, Penhall returned to the Matterhorn, making the first ascent of its west face on 3 September 1879, a harder climb than the Zmutt ridge; his party reached the summit one hour after Mummery's.
[8]
Penhall wrote an account of the west face climb in the
Alpine Journal
entitled 'The Matterhorn from the Zmutt Glacier'. The Penhall Couloir on the west face is named after him.
[9]
Death
[
edit
]
Penhall and
Meiringen
guide Andreas Maurer were killed by an avalanche high up on the
Wetterhorn
on 3 August 1882. Penhall and Maurer share a double gravestone in the
Grindelwald
cemetery.
[3]
[10]
External links
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
1871 census transcript for Hastings, Sussex, at rootsuk.com, accessed 17 July 2008
- ^
"Penhall, William (PNL877W)"
.
A Cambridge Alumni Database
. University of Cambridge.
- ^
a
b
William Penhall...
at summitpost.org, accessed 17 July 2008
- ^
Trinity College
Trinity Street
, UK census 1881, online at familysearch.org, accessed 17 July 2008
- ^
Helmut Dumler and Willi P. Burkhardt,
The High Mountains of the Alps
, London: Diadem, 1994, p. 139.
- ^
The High Mountains of the Alps
, p. 71.
- ^
William Penhall, 'The Matterhorn from the Zmutt Glacier',
Alpine Journal
, Vol. IX, reprinted in
Peaks, Passes and Glaciers
, ed. Walt Unsworth, London: Allen Lane, 1981, pp. 64?72.
- ^
The High Mountains of the Alps
, p. 151.
- ^
Robin G. Collomb,
Pennine Alps Central
, London: Alpine Club, 1975, p. 258.
- ^
Gos, Charles (1948). "Mysterious Disasters II. The Deaths on the Wetterhorn".
Alpine Tragedy
. Trans. Malcolm Barnes.
New York
:
Charles Scribner's Sons
. pp. 134?141.