Christian Kaufmann (7 March 1872 – 12 January 1939) was a Swiss mountain guide and alpinist who climbed in the Alps, the Canadian Rockies, the Selkirks, the Himalayas, and Norway, accomplishing several dozen first ascents.
Family and early life (1872–1892) Christian (a.k.a. Christen) was born on 7 March 1872, in Grindelwald to Peter Kaufmann (1832–1903) and Margaretha (née Baumann, 1839–1903)."Tauf-Rodel für die Kirchengemeinde Grindelwald" 12, 1866-1875. Staatsarchiv des Kantons Bern. Archiveinheit. His father, called Graben-Peter or Grabi-Peter, was a well-established certified mountain guide during the Golden Age of Alpinism. Christian was the eleventh of seventeen children in the family. His brother Friedrich (Fritz) Kaufmann (born 1878), brothers Rudolf (born 1875) and Hans (Johann) Kaufmann (1875–1930) as well as his half-brother Peter Kaufmann (1858–1924) all became mountain guides.
From an early age, Christian and his brothers tended goats and cows on the upper pastures, learning about and becoming accustomed to alpine conditions. "From the time he left school, he began to help the family finances by carrying rucksacks for travellers over the Little and Great Scheidegg, to the Faulhorn or Männlichen."Häsler, G.A. “Im Memoriam: Christen Kaufmann,” Alpine Journal (London) 51, no. 258 (May 1939), 1310-1311. He often assisted his father, and, after a three-year apprenticeship as a porter, Christian Kaufmann passed rigorous examinations, so that on 24 June 1892, he was certified in Interlaken as an official mountain guide and given a paginated Führerbuch to record the testimonies of future clients.Kaufmann, Christian, Führerbuch, nach dem Reglement für die Bergführer und Träger vom 24. Juni 1892. Interlaken. 1892. Courtesy Elisa Wolf-Kaufmann & Heimatmuseum, Grindelwald.
Early climbing career (1892–1901)
The first entries in Kaufmann's Führerbuch were written by members of Swiss watchmaking families after their climbs of the Wetterhorn.Chr. Kaufmann, Führerbuch, pp. 38-39. Gustave Jacot (1864–1939) from Le LocleChr. Kaufmann, Führerbuch, p. 38. wrote that Christian and his father (Graben Peter) had guided him in heavy snow (20 June 1892). On 26 and 27 July 1892, also climbed with Kaufmann. Dr. Gottfried Schwarz (1860–1925),"Schwarz, Gottlieb (1860-1925)," Stadtarchiv Schaffhausen, Personalia alphabetisch, D IV.00. an active member of the Swiss Alpine Club (Randen) and rector of the Kantonalgymnasium in Schaffhausen, joined them.
Early in his climbing career, on 14 and 15 August 1894, Kaufmann was one of three guides (including Christian Burgener as first guide)Churchill does not identify the third guide: “Christian Burgener ascended the Wetterhorn with me on the 14th . . . as first guide (3 guides).” Christian Burgener. Führerbuch, p. 68. Copy courtesy Swiss Alpine Museum, Bern, Switzerland. who led the young Winston Churchill to the Gleckstein hut and then to the summit of the Wetterhorn. That year, nineteen-year-old Churchill, his brother Jack, and his tutor J. D. G. Little were on a walking tour of Switzerland; they visited Grindelwald and stayed at the Bear Hotel.Churchill, Winston Spencer, “Winston to Lady Randolph” (12 August 1894, Hotel du Bär, Grindelwald) [Letter]. Winston S. Churchill: Companion Volume I: Part I, 1874-1896, ed. Randolph S. Churchill. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967, pp. 514-515. Churchill was impressed with his first encounter with the high alps, saying that "the spectacle of the sunrise striking the peaks of the Bernese Oberland is a marvel of light and colour unsurpassed in my experience."Churchill, Winston Spencer. My Early Life. A Roving Commission. London: Butterworth, 1931, p. 49. Like many of his classmates at Harrow School, Winston had developed a keen interest in mountaineering, inspired by Edward Whymper's lantern-side lecture at the school.Berg, Peter. "Edward Whymper's Lecture Slides," Alpine Journal (London) 1997, pp.209-212. In fact, after his alpine climbs, Winston had expressed a desire to become a mountaineer in a letter to Harrow's headmaster, J. E. C. Welldon, who positively encouraged him: "You have got the figure of a mountaineer, and you ought to make yourself a name."Churchill, Randolph S., ed. “Reverend J.E.C. Welldon to Winston” [Letter, 11. September 1864] Winston S. Churchill: Companion Volume I, Part 1, 1874-1896. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Comp, 1967, p. 520. However, his life-long friend L. S. Amery, with whom he later climbed Monte Rosa,Johannes Andermatten guided Churchill and L. S. Amery to the summit of the Monte Rosa. The Broadwater Collection, Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge, England: BRDW V 3/2 reported that Winston had suffered from mountain sickness and a badly flayed face.Amery, Leopold Stennett. Days of Fresh Air: Being Reminiscences of Outdoor Life. London: Jarrolds, 1939. These unpleasant experiences probably discouraged Churchill from following a career in mountaineering.
On 21 September 1895, Christian Kaufmann (age 24), his brother Peter (age 37), and nineteen-year-old Gordon Tayleur,Gordon Brooke Tayleur (born 1876, the son of Charles Tayleur, 1864-1903, Market Drayton, Shropshire, England) made several climbs with Kaufmann and his half- brother Peter, including ascents of the Mettenberg (17 September 1895); the Schreckhorn, Mönch, Jungfrau, Silberhorn, Wetterhorn (July 1895): Finsteraarhorn (11 September 1895); and two earlier ascents of the Eiger (10 August 1894; 27 July 1895), calling Christian a “plucky and careful guide . . . who is steady, strong and in every way splendid” (Chr. Kaufmann, Führerbuch, p. 53). Tayleur, a Charterhouse student, and his sister Lilia had befriended Winston Churchill during their August 1894 stay in Grindelwald; a short time later, Tayleur climbed the Monte Rosa with Churchill and their guide, Johannes Andermatten. See Churchill, “Winston to Lady Randolph," p. 514; and Andermatten's Führerbuch. an Englishman, successfully climbed the Mitteleggi of the Eiger. The event "was watched by guides, residents, and tourists along the whole Grindelwald valley." A detailed account appeared in The Times (London): "All available telescopes and opera-glasses were in requisition, and it is not too much to say that each step taken for nine hours was both seen and noted, so that some even professed to give an exact number."McCormick, Joseph. “Ascent of the Mitteleggi,” The Times (London) 21 September 1895, 7. Issue 34688. McCormick, Chaplain and Canon of York at Trinity College, Dublin, climbed with Christian Kaufmann on 29 August 1896, a year after writing the article for the Times. McCormick, a close friend and supporter of Edward Whymper, had planned to climb the Matterhorn with Whymper, but bad weather prevented his arrival in Zermatt. See also Emil Henry. Triumph and Tragedy: The Life of Edward Whymper. Leicester: Matador, 2011. They left Grindelwald in darkness at 3:30 am, making their way to Alpiglen and crossing the moraine before the steep climb. Tayleur himself remarked on Christian's endurance, especially his "work step cutting was tremendous, requiring seven hours steady cutting." Moreover, as they reached the top, they climbed in darkness and came to the final ridge at 11 pm.
At the turn-of-the-century, Kaufmann guided Herbert J. Mothersill (1868–1937)'In Memoriam: Herbert J. Mothersill, 1868-1937," Alpine Journal (London), 1937, four times, including not only trips in the Bernese Oberland (Wetterhorn, Schreckhorn, Jungfrau, Finsteraarhorn, Eiger-Mitteleggi, and Silberhorn in 1895 and 1896) but also to Zermatt (Matterhorn, Breithorn, Weishorn, and Rothorn) and Chamonix (Mont Blanc in 1897)."New Expeditions in 1897: Monte Rosa District," Alpine Journal (London) 1897, issue 138, p. 523. After many challenging climbs, Mothersill died after being fatally injured in a traffic accident."In Memoriam: Herbert J. Mothersill (1868--1937)," Alpine Journal (London) 49 (1937), pp. 248-267.
In 1898, Kaufmann led Charles Alfred Elliott (1835–1911), the former Lt. Governor of Bengal, on a relatively easy climb to the Gleckstein hut and back to Grindelwald. But it was Charles' brother Julius Marshall Elliott (1841–1869) who had died 29 years earlier, on 27 July 1869, in an accident while climbing the Scheckhorn unroped. Elliott had insisted that the party not be roped together; when the party reached an arête (now called "Elliott's Wangli"), Elliott jumped from a steep icy slope to some rocks but slipped sliding down the mountain to his death. The guide, Franz Biener from Zermatt, could most certainly have saved Elliott, had they been roped together.Zsigmondy, Emil & Wilhelm Paulcke. Die Gefahren der Alpen. München: Bergverlag Rother, 1933, p. 271. While taking a tour of the Grindelwald glacier many years later, Charles' son Claude made a grim comment as he approached an icy fissure: "My uncle is down there." Julius Marshall Elliott is, in fact, buried in the Grindelwald cemetery."Julius Marshall Elliott," SummitPost.org