Ascent to the Summit of Mont Blanc in 1834

Barry was accompanied by six guides when he made, according to his calculations, the 16th ascent (20th person not counting guides) of Mont Blanc. Meckly credits him with the 17th and Perret with the 21st ascent. Barry’s account of his ascent was republished in 1836 as a series of two lectures which vastly expanded the text of the first edition by threefold. This 2nd edition also included a very nice folding panorama of Mont Blanc as well as color versions of the two lithographs provided in the first edition. Pasted in the back is a TLS (dated 1939) from Thos. Rowatt, Director of the Royal Scottish Museum, to Thorington relating the destruction of various models.

Thorington, James Monroe (1894 – 1989) – AAC President (1941-43), Honorary Member (1949), member Alpine Club (honorary), Alpine Club of Canada (honorary), Deutschen und Österreichischen Alpenverein, Club Alpin Francais, Schweizer Alpen-Club, and the Royal Geographical Society. Thorington was a member of the AAC for 64 years and editor of the AAJ for 12 years. Under Thorington, the Club became “the publisher of last resort” for mountaineers, ensuring that information was published which would otherwise not see the light of day. Thorington was perhaps the ultimate scholar of alpinism for the Club and involved in producing a long series of guide books. He spent many years climbing in the Canadian Northwest, with over 50 ascents, the Alps, England, Norway, Lapland, and Sicily. Mount Thorington, in the Purcell Range, bears his name. Thorington was the author of ‘The Glittering Mountains of Canada’ (1925), ‘Mont Blanc Sideshow’ (1934), ‘A Survey of Early American Ascents In the Alps In the Nineteenth Century’ (1943), ‘The Purcell Range of British Columbia’ (1946), translator and editor of Kain’s ‘Where the Clouds Can Go’ (1935), as well as numerous articles. Very few members gave so much of themselves to the Club.

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