Christian Kaufmann (March 7, 1872 – January 12, 1939) was a Swiss mountain guide who climbed in the Alps, the Canadian Rockies, the Selkirks, the Himalayas, and Norway, accomplishing several dozen first-ascents.

“From the time he left school, he began to help the family finances by carrying rucksacks for travellers over the Little and Great Scheidegg, to the Faulhorn or Männlichen.”[2] He often assisted his father, and, after a three-year apprenticeship as a porter, Christian Kaufmann passed rigorous examinations, so that on June 24, 1892, he was certified in Interlaken as an official mountain guide and given a paginated Führerbuch to record the testimonies of future clients.

Tayleur himself remarked on Christian's endurance, especially his “work step cutting was tremendous, requiring seven hours steady cutting.” Moreover, as they reached the top, they climbed in darkness and came to the final ridge at 11 pm.

"[22][23] Ada (1877-1949) and Elizabeth (born 1878) Crossley from Burnley, England, comment that their climbs were "long and difficult [to the Jungfraujoch, the Mönch and to the Gross-Schreckhorn], adding that "it is only guides of exceptional ability who would undertake it with two ladies.

"[24] Daniel P. Rhodes, who later wrote The Pleasure Book of Grindelwald[25] (1903), remarked that Christian is "untiring, quick, and cautious" and "speaks English unusually well.

"[27] Finally, twenty-year-old Reginald Thomas Collins (1880-1918)--who accompanied Herbert Ashley Gaitskell, a surgeon in London at Guy's Hospital, on a climb of the Grosses Schreckhorn (on October 26, 1900)--is typical of Kaufmann's clients when he calls him "a first-class guide.

[29] Both Christian and Hans Kaufmann (separately) travelled to Canada in the spring or early summer of 1901 to promote climbing and tourism for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

They weren't expected to be beasts of burden, cooks, or pot washers.”[37] Although Whymper was an accomplished alpinist, artist, lecturer, and writer, his social snobbery, belittling attitude, and excessive consumption of alcohol continued to spark clashes with the guides as well as the outfitters, Wild Bill Peyto and Jack Sinclair.

In fact, one of the surviving camp photographs from 1901 shows a row of liquor bottles on top of the shipping box; below the crate is a sign, sarcastically written by one of the guides or outfitters, that reads, "The Remains of E.

[40] During their stay at the CPR Mount Stephen Hotel in Field, British Columbia, Whymper's group met Reverend James Outram (1864-1925), an English Vicar and experienced climber, who had come to Canada with his brother to recover from overwork ("a brain collapse").

Outram's sojourn in Canada proved to be far from relaxing; he had begun a strenuous series of ascents guided by Christian Häsler Sr, including Mt.

For eight weeks in July and August 1902, Christian Kaufmann guided James Outram to the summits of ten of the highest peaks in Canadian Rockies, including Mt.

In his entry in Kaufmann's Führerbuch, Outram says that “big climbing commenced on July 19 and between this date & Aug. 26, 10 first ascents of larger peaks were made, several new passes and a considerable quantity of mountain exploration achieved.

Forbes and numerous other occasions he had opportunity to demonstrate his quite first-class ability and did so most thoroughly.”[46] The list[47] of first ascents Kaufmann and Outram completed in those six weeks in 1902 is remarkable: July 19: Mt.

"Drawn out for one long hour of concentrated tension were the successive experiences of helpless groping in the dark depths for something to rest a foot upon, of blind search all over the chilled rocky surface for a knob or tiny crack where the numbed fingers might find another hold, of agonizing doubt as to their stability when found, of eerie thrill and sickening sensation when the long-sought support crumbled beneath the stress and hurtled downward into the blackness of space, whilst the hollow reverberations of its fall reechoed through the silence.

In fact, Outram treats Kaufmann's only fault humorously and forgivingly: "We looked forward to a good hot supper, when, to our dismay, it was discovered that we were matchless!

"[63] On June 5, 1904, Christian and Hans Kaufmann guided John Duncan Patterson, later the third president of the Alpine Club of Canada, to a first ascent of 3,311 m (10,863 ft) high Mount Ball.

[60] In 1904, at the Chalet Lake Louise, the brothers also met Gertrude Emily Benham, an English mountaineer and traveler, who had climbed many Alpine peaks in her youth with her father.

They set out on July 20, 1904; however, on the same day, Hans Kaufmann and Professor Charles Ernest Fay (1846-1931) also attempted to climb the mountain by a more difficult route.

[71] However, Feuz’ version of the events should be viewed skeptically, since he may have been jealous of the popularity and successes of the Kaufmanns, especially their independence, genial nature, English fluency, and above-average gratuities from clients.

On August 12, one of the Kaufmanns was "unwell" and stayed at a "rest-house near Naoshera," but he finally returned to Srinagar, while Kellas and the others travelled on to Darjeeling, visiting the Kangchenjunga glacier along the way.

A third attempt on September 30 that began at 2 am and involved crossing the Zemu glacier by moonlight was also abandoned because of deep, soft snow and inclement weather at 20,000 feet.

[81] Allen, grandson of Harriet Beecher Stowe, was “one of the foremost authorities on the use of anesthetics” and worked in Cuba with General Leonard Wood on the causes and prevention of yellow fever.

[82] J. Duke Smith, a fellow Alpine enthusiast from Boston, often join Allen and Kaufmann (e.g., Matterhorn, Rothorn, and the “High-level Route from Chamonix to Zermatt").

On June 26, 1908, Ethel Reddan (Hampstead, London), a member of the Ladies Alpine Club, climbed the Wetterhorn as well as the Little and Big Schreckhorn with Kaufmann.

The entries in his Führerbuch are limited to climbs in the Bernese Oberland, and, with the completion of the railway to the Jungfraujoch in 1912, Kaufmann and other guides began their tours at the 11,332-foot rail terminus.

Häsler recalls that he "met Christen Kaufmann in late autumn of 1938, smiling and as merry as ever, tramping down a dripping hillside at Grindelwald, under a big blue umbrella.

His death was announced in a New York Times obituary: "Christian Kaufmann, Swiss guide, who was well-known in Canada for his mountain-climbing feats died at the age of 66.

In an age, when mountaineering was “a demonstration of masculinity” and when men feared that the “weaker sex” might "prove themselves capable of the same feats,"[98] Kaufmann gave women climbers equal social and professional recognition.

In 1903, James Outram suggested that a mountain with twin summits in the lower Mistaya valley of Alberta be officially called the Kaufmann Peaks[99] in honor of Christian (10,200 ft.) and Hans (10,151 ft.).