Alpine Club

Alpine Club, an association consisting of English gentlemen, which was formed in 1857-8 for the purpose of creating a bond of union between those who found pleasure in mountaineering. It was the Alps that at first attracted the attention of the mountaineers, and hence the name of the club, but the members have by no means contented themselves with the peaks of Switzerland and Italy. Undoubtedly great good has been done by the members of the Alpine Club, both in revealing to the public many previously unheard of and unimagined beauties, and in pointing out at the same time the attendant dangers of the art of mountaineering, and suggesting the necessary precautions. It is, moreover, a significant fact that since the foundation of the club the death-rate of accidents from mountain climbing has been reduced to a little less than four lives per annum.