Henry Russell (explorer)

Henry Russell

Henry Patrick Marie, Count Russell-Killough (1834–1909) was one of the pioneers of Pyrenean exploration, known for his obsession with the Vignemale.

Early life

Born in Toulouse of an Irish father and a French mother, he undertook his first distant voyage at the age of 23, to North America. In 1858 he climbed Pic de Néouvielle in the Néouvielle massif from Barèges, as well as the Ardiden, and made three ascents of Monte Perdido.

In 1859 he made his second voyage, which lasted three years. He travelled to Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Irkutsk and Beijing, crossing the Gobi Desert twice and descending the Amur River. He stayed in Shanghai and Hong Kong, then travelled on to Australia and New Zealand. He spent a year in India and returned to France by Cairo and Constantinople.

Pyrenean exploration

The north face of the Vignemale; Russell's Bellevue caves are out of sight, to the left of the photo

From 1861, Russell became devoted to the exploration of the Pyrenees. On his own or in the company of his guides, he made numerous first ascents, surviving financially on his personal fortune and his investments. He is especially known for his ascents of the Vignemale, which he climbed for the first time on 14 September 1861 with the guide Laurent Passet.

In 1864 in Bagnères-de-Bigorre, together with Charles Packe, Farnham Maxwell-Lyte and Emilien Frossard, he formed a society devoted primarily to the scientific and ethnographic study of the Pyrenees: the Société Ramond (Ramond Society, named after the famous Pyrenean explorer, Louis Ramond de Carbonnières), still extant today.[1] In 1868 he climbed the Vignemale for a second time, with Hippolyte Passet. For his third ascent on 11 February 1869, and the first winter ascent of the peak, he was accompanied by Hippolyte and Henri Passet.

Henry Russell in front of one of his caves on the Vignemale

Being keen to spend nights on the Vignemale, he bivouacked in the open – buried by his guides in a blanket of rocks and earth – on the summit of Pic Longue on 26 August 1880. It was at this point that he considered the installation of caves on the mountain, reasoning that any other construction would be unaesthetic and unwelcome. On his instructions, seven caves were built between 1881 and 1893.

In August 1882, the first cave was completed; this was the villa Russell, located at 3,205 m at the col of Cerbillonna (the cave was 3 m in depth, 2.5 m broad and 2 m in height). Russell lived in the cave for three days, and on 12 August 1884 he had the cave – as well as the mountain – blessed by a priest. In 1885 digging started on the second cave (that of the Guides), then in 1886 on the third: the Grotte des Dames (the Ladies cave). On 5 December 1888 he asked the prefect of the Hautes-Pyrénées to grant the concession of the Vignemale to him (comprising 200 ha between 2,300 and 3,300 m). The annual rent was fixed at 1 franc over 99 years, and payment began in January 1889.

When the Ossoue glacier covered his caves, three others were dug 800 m lower, at the base of the glacier (2,400m): these are known as the Bellevue caves. He organized sumptuous and legendary banquets at these caves, receiving princes and notables there on Persian carpets and styling himself as the Comte des Monts.[2] These caves lacked the grandeur of his higher perches, however, so for his seventh and final cave – Le Paradis – he had a spot 18 m below the summit of the Vignemale dynamited to effect a suitable dwelling. It was here that he celebrated his 'silver wedding': the sixty years that had passed since his first ascent of the mountain.[3] He made his thirty-third and final ascent of the Vignemale on 8 August 1904.

The entrances to Russell's caves above the Glacier d'Ossoue, Vignemale

Pic Russell in the Maladeta massif is named after him; he made the first ascent in 1865.

On his death in Biarritz in 1909 he was buried at the cemetery in Pau.

First ascents

Russell (right) and the baron de Lassus (left) in Luchon, in 1895, photograph by Eugène Trutat
Henry Russell

The following is a selection of Russell's first ascents in the Pyrenees. Names of companions are given; otherwise the ascents were undertaken alone.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Web site of the Société Ramond (Ramond Society) http://www.ramond-societe.com
  2. ↑ N. Crane, Clear Waters Rising, London: Penguin, 1997, p. 89.
  3. ↑ Clear Waters Rising, p. 89.
  4. ↑ See list of Pyrenean first ascents at http://philrando.free.fr/premieres.html
  5. ↑ Cárdenas, Fabricio (2014). 66 petites histoires du Pays Catalan [66 Little Stories of Catalan Country] (in French). Perpignan: Ultima Necat. ISBN 978-2-36771-006-8. OCLC 893847466.

Bibliography

Works by Russell

Works about Russell

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