The (high) mountains are an environment that can quickly become hostile to human presence: it's not possible to live in a world of rock and ice. Moreover, physical confrontation with the mountain involves physical effort and fatigue that can prove disabling, particularly at altitude. These facts have prompted a number of scientists and mountaineers to look into the matter, turning the Alps into a laboratory for experimentation. This non-exhaustive overview is followed by a second chapter focusing more specifically on the figure of Angelo Mosso, a physician, physiologist and ...

Angelo Mosso (1846-1910) was an Italian physician, physiologist and mountaineer. He was interested in the Alps and their impact, not physical but physiological, on the human body. The Alps were seen as the ideal place to answer some of the burning questions about the human body at the end of the century, such as how the nerves react to changes in environment, or how energy is expended and fatigue caused in experiments. So we're a long way from the Alps as playground of Europe, as Leslie Stephen put it. Mosso noted that the effects of fatigue are stronger in the mountains, but last ...

Gabriel Loppé (1825-1913) was a French painter, photographer and mountaineer. Although he is little known to the general public today, he enjoyed considerable success during his lifetime. However, there are few studies of his work. Loppé was a painter-mountaineer, i.e. a painter and mountaineer who put art above all else: mountain outings were subordinated to artistic practice. First steps in painting Loppé's decision to become a landscape painter was prompted by the sight of two painters working from summit on Pic Saint-Loup. This vocation would be facilitated by his stays ...