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Chargement... Killing Dragons: The Conquest of the Alps (2000)par Fergus Fleming
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Appartient à la série éditorialeSerie Piper (4751)
History.
Sports & Recreations.
Travel.
Nonfiction.
HTML: A "dramatic and masterful" account of early alpine explorers and the challenges they faced to scale the summits (Anthony Brandt, National Geographic Adventure). Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)914.94History and Geography Geography and Travel Geography of and travel in Europe Other European Countries SwitzerlandClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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So it was for the Alps in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were considered unclimbable, harsh, and forbidding monuments to death and destruction. Avalanches regularly killed many, and the physics of glaciers were not understood. Fleming has written a detailed examination of how and why that all changed.
It was a combination of thirst for scientific knowledge about the Alps coupled with myth that was layered with romantic views of Byron and others. Killing the Dragons refers to the legends that the Alps were populated by Dragons. Crossing the Alps was a very hazardous undertaking because of swift changes in the weather, glacial crevasses, and falling rocks. (One avalanche sent boulders into a lake creating a tsunami of epic proportions inundating a town.
After Mt. Blanc was climbed successfully, the story continued, moving from dragons to a virtual advertising campaign. Much lie Everest today, climbing Mt. Blanc became the thing to do. The Alps were transformed into a thing of beauty and respite, attracting hoards of visitors, rather than something to be feared.
Before you know it, the Alps and Switzerland benefited from another kind of myth, that of the health giving clean air and wonderful resorts. Towns and villages that had been considered mere provinces of swine, were now sought after resorts and the Swiss, clever people they are, soon had a train (!) running up though the Matterhorn close to its summit for people like me who would rather ride than climb.
It’s a fun read (I listened to the well-read audio version) ( )