Icecapades

This chapter focuses on James David Forbes and Louis Agassiz, two glaciologists that fueled a passion for ice and snow that prominently figured in the public imagination. It looks into Agassiz's “Études sur les glaciers” and its accompanying atlas of thirty-two plates that stirred sublime awe and scientific curiosity. It also talks about how Forbes, in contrast to Agassiz, fashioned his “Travels Through the Alps of Savoy” in a format and style after Horace-Bénédict de Saussure's publication as a reference for both scientists and mountaineers. The chapter emphasizes how Forbes and Louis Agassiz's works divulge their infatuation with glaciers as a highly dynamic, volatile, and agentic environment. It also discloses Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz who assumed Agassiz's legacy after his death in December 1873 by publishing “Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence.”

Poetic Science and Competitive Vigor

This chapter looks at Edward Whymper's best-selling “Scrambles Amongst the Alps” in 1871. It reveals how Whymper's book is unmistakably shaped by Alexander von Humboldt's discourse, prefaced by literary quotes, and brimmed with references to Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, James David Forbes, Louis Agassiz, and Leslie Stephen. It also emphasizes Whymper's engagement to nineteenth-century traditions while pointing ahead to the nationally tinged race for first ascents in the twentieth century. The chapter mentions Irish physicist John Tyndall, Whymper's contemporary and rival, who climbed with competitive vigor but praised challenges in the mountains as mental and physical recovery from his work in London. It examines Tyndall's writings that shaped the representation and consumption of mountaineering by imbuing the sport with a spiritual dimension.