Edited by:
Massimo Martini
Jean-Joseph Maquignaz's mountaineering career has a striking beginning: he is a member of Jean-Antoine Carrel's team, committed to finding an Italian route to the Matterhorn, in competition with Englishman Edward Whymper, who is pursuing the first absolute ascent.
Maquignaz, a mason by trade, is appreciated above all as a stonemason, in fact he is entrusted with the task of driving iron rods into the rock, to equip the wall in view of the subsequent roped parties, in particular those already planned by Felice Giordano and Quintino Sella. So, on 14th July 1865, there he is, watching with great discouragement as the Englishman's famous white trousers stand out on the much coveted summit. He retires defeated with his companions, but probably also expresses some criticism about the management of the team: in fact, he renounces the symbolic revenge three days later, when Jean-Antoine Carrel completes the first Italian ascent of the Matterhorn.
By this time, however, Jean-Joseph Maquignaz is 'one of the gang' and his innate climbing skills immediately bring him several clients: Carrel himself sometimes collaborates with him, despite the fact that their strong and rough characters are not easily compatible.
Maquignaz's list of achievements includes no less than 33 new routes, among which it is worth mentioning the 'correction' that he made in 1867 to the route opened by Carrel: just before the summit, he had planned to cross over to the Swiss side of Zmutt, but instead he found a passage entirely on Italian territory, which is still habitually followed today.
His clients included the prestigious names of John Tyndall, Felice Giordano and all the new scions of the Sella family: Alessandro, Corradino, Gaudenzio and Vittorio.
The crowning achievement of his career, which earned him imperishable fame, was the conquest of the Dente del Gigante, on 28 July 1882, at the head of a 'family' rope team made up of his son Baptiste and his grandson Daniel. The following day they did the encore, but in the company of a large delegation from the Sella family.
Maquignaz is also a forerunner of winter mountaineering, and counts several 'off-season' first ascents: the Punta Dufour, the Gran Paradiso (both with Vittorio Sella), and the crossing of Mont Blanc, in 1888, at almost 60 years of age.
In August 1890, he literally disappeared while tackling the Bionassay ridge of Mont Blanc; with him perished without a trace Antonio Castagneri, a guide from Balme, and his client, Count Umberto Scarampi di Villanova. A moving memoir of this unfortunate roped party can be found in the volume Il Cervino by Guido Rey, which recounts their meeting in Châtillon, as they were about to take the road to Courmayeur.