Emmanuel Boileau de Castelnau

Jules Henri Emmanuel Boileau, baron de Castelnau (; 1857-1923) was a French alpinist and sportsman who took part in the first ascent of the Meije. After his career as an alpinist he competed as an amateur cyclist.

Biography Boileau de Castelnau was born in Nîmes in 1857. He was sickly as a child.

Alpine career He began mountain climbing in the Pyrenees at the age of thirteen, climbing Maladeta and Aneto. Boileau de Castelnau told Duhamel of his desire to achieve the ascent of the Grand Pic de la Meije. Tired of the bad weather that prevailed in Chamonix, the following year the two men engaged three guides in the valley and went to La Grave to bivouac. The company was tempted by the north face with the three guides (Alexandre Tournier, François and Léon Simond) but the expedition was blocked by an overly dangerous passage in a corridor formed of black ice and sleet. That year they reached the central peak of the Meije , conquered by W. A. B. Coolidge five years earlier.

Later, in Grenoble, Boileau de Castelnau met the President of the Société des touristes du Dauphiné, and in 1876 met the guide Pierre Gaspard and his son. They formed one of the most brilliant ropes of their era, quickly achieving many first ascents in the 1876 and 1877 seasons. On 4 August 1877, Boileau de Castelnau and Gaspard tried a new ascent of the Meije by the south side, a route attempted the previous year by Henry Duhamel. With difficulty and thanks to Gaspard's audacity, they came to the end of the wall that Duhamel thought impassable, both climbing with bare feet. Forced to abandon it due to lack of time, they left a fixed rope in place.

The Alpine career of the very young Boileau de Castelnau, interrupted by military service the following year, finally ended in 1879.

Post-alpine career He subsequently devoted himself to managing his estates in Languedoc near Montpellier. He joined a foot-racing team and won the Mile Race in Germany. He attended the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, but did not write a thesis or practice medicine. In later years he became interested in bicycling (finishing second in the Paris-Tours race of 1898), driving motorcars (befriending Armand Peugeot, among other manufacturers, and finishing fifth in the first Tour de France Automobile), and flying balloons and airplanes.

Family and death Boileau de Castelnau was married with a son and three daughters. He died at his home in Montpellier in 1923 at the age of 65.

Ascents

1875 - First ascent of the Tête des Corridors , 21 August 1875 - Pic Central of the Meije 1876 - First ascent of the Tête des Fétoules, 29 August 1876 - First ascent of the aiguille d'Olan , 2 September 1876 - First ascent of the Tête de l'Étret, 4 September 1876 - First ascent of the Pic Nord des Cavales , 10 September 1876 - First ascent of the Tête du Graou , 18 September 1877 - First ascent of the Dôme de Neige des Écrins , 21 July 1877 - First ascent of the Tête du Rouget , 23 July 1877 - First ascent of the Petit Pelvoux 1877 - First ascent of the Grand Pic de La Meije , 16 August