Pierre Gaspard

In 1874, Pierre Gaspard climbed the Barre des Écrins. As a guide, Gaspard's two most important customers were Emmanuel Boileau de Castelnau and Henry Duhamel. With Boileau de Castelnau, Gaspard formed one of the most brilliant ropes of their era, making a dozen first ascents in the 1876 and 1877 seasons. On 21 July 1877, Gaspard and Boileau de Castelnau made the first ascent of the Dôme de Neige (4,015 metres) in the Massif des Écrins Barre.Less than four weeks later (16 August 1877), climbing with Gaspard's son (Pierre Gaspard fils), they conquered the last of the great, difficult, and yet unclimbed peaks of the Alps - the Grand Pic de la Meije (3,983 metres).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. On August 16, Boileau de Castelnau, Gaspard and his son reached the top, not without difficulty: the Meije was defeated. In the following years he devoted himself mainly to the guiding profession, guiding more than thirty of the first parties to climb the Écrins mountains. Of the first ten parties to climb La Meije, he led six. With Duhamel, besides the ascent of Pic Gaspard in 1878, he opened in 1880 a route on the south face of the Barre des Écrins from La Bérarde and the following year a new route on the southeast side of the Aiguille du Plat de la Selle.

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