Henri Cordier

Henri Cordier or Henry Cordier (1856 – 7 June 1877) was a French mountaineer. In his short two-year career, he became the first Frenchman to reach the level of the English members of the Alpine Club, in the silver age of alpinism in the second half of the 19th century, which was dominated by the development of mountaineering in the Alps. With some of the Alpine Club's mountain guides and mountaineers, he led significant first ascents in the Mont Blanc massif and in the Dauphiné Alps (the Massif des Écrins).

Biography A grandson of geologist Louis Cordier and a great-nephew of politician and scientist Louis Ramond de Carbonnières, Henri Cordier pursued studies at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, founded in 1872, where he received high honors. He was first attracted by the Pyrenees, to which he traveled in 1874, before visiting the Swiss Alps the following year. His brief Alpine career combined talent and audacity. In the 1876 season he succeeded in making eleven first ascents. He claimed to have climbed the western peak of the Meije that year, but was subsequently forced to retract the claim.

Major ascents 1874 - Mont Perdu, Vignemale and pic du Midi d'Ossau 1876 - Attempt at la Meije (then one of the last virgin peaks), on the north face by les Corridors, with guides Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and J. Bouillet (of la Grave), 21 June 1876 - Aiguille du Plat de la Selle with guides Jakob Anderegg and Andreas Maurer, 28 June 1876 - South arête of Le Râteau with Jakob Anderegg and Andreas Maurer, 3 July 1876 - Southeast arête of Finsteraarhorn with Jakob Anderegg and Kaspar Maurer, 15 July 1876 - Couloir Cordier on the northeast face of the Aiguille Verte with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and guides Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and Johann Jaun, 31 July. This steep snow and ice climb was not repeated until 1924 1876 - Voie Cordier on the north face of Les Courtes with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and guides Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and Johann Jaun, 4 August Jakob Anderegg was lowered into the twelve-foot hole on a rope, but could find no trace of Cordier and nearly suffocated before being pulled up.

Cordier's body was recovered the next morning forty feet below the location of his disappearance. Henri Cordier was 21 years old.

Legacy In memory of Henri Cordier, the Pic de Neige Cordier, located above the Glacier Blanc in the Massif des Ecrins, was named after him. It was climbed for the first time on 3 August 1877 by Paul Guillemin, Émile Pic, and Pierre Estienne. Cordier also gave his name to posterity in two first-routes, which he had executed in 1876 with Thomas Middlemore, John Oakley Maund and guides Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and Johann Jaun: the Cordier Couloir on the North Face of the Aiguille Verte and the Cordier route on the north face of Les Courtes (both in the Mont Blanc massif).