Charles Packe (explorer)

Charles Packe (22 August 1826 – 16 July 1896) was an English lawyer and explorer who is noted for his travels in and writing about the Pyrenees.

[1] After a failed attempt in 1862, on 15 September 1864 Packe reached the summit with his guide Jean-Pierre Gaspard of Arrens; they had spent a week trying to find a suitable route.

Although they believed that they had made the first ascent, the mountain had been previously climbed in 1825 by the French army officers Peytier and Hossard, as geodesic technicians.

The ridge by which Packe and Gaspard made their ascent is now known as the Arête Packe-Russell.

[1] In 1862 Packe's A Guide to the Pyrenees (with the subtitle Especially Intended for the Use of Mountaineers) was first published;[1] the second edition was brought out by the London firm of Longmans, Green, and Co.[2] Packe was one of the founding members of the Société Ramond, a learned society devoted to the study of the Pyrenees and founded in 1864 or 1865 (authorities vary) in Bagnères-de-Bigorre by Henry Russell, Émilien Frossard, Farnham Maxwell-Lyte and Packe.