The Vertical Century

Vaucher was born in 1929 in Vallorbe, Switzerland. She took up rock climbing in 1951 and climbed mainly on the Salève in the French Prealps near Geneva, where she joined a group of women climbers who were regulars on the Salève. In 1955, she moved to Neuchâtel, where she began free fall parachuting. She is credited as Switzerland's first female parachutist. She had made over 100 mountain descents via parachute before she formed a climbing team with Michel Vaucher, a mountaineer whom she married in 1962.

One of Vaucher's most famous climbs was the Matterhorn in July 1965. When she reached the summit on July 14, she became the first woman to have climbed the Matterhorn's north face. She made the ascent with her husband on the 100th anniversary of the first successful ascent of the mountain, and their "surprise climb" was noted to have "stole[n] the spotlight" from two other climbing teams who were planning to climb the Matterhorn at the same time with film crews to broadcast their ascent on live television. An article in the St. Petersburg Times about the Vauchers' success was titled "Swiss Housewife Steals Matterhorn Show", and when interviewed about her plans after the descent, Yvette answered, "to go have a hair-do – fast."

Yvette and Michel Vaucher made numerous significant climbs in the Alps throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including Piz Badile, the Aiguille de Triolet, the Aiguille du Dru, the Eiger, the Große Zinne and the Grandes Jorasses. In 1966, they made the first direct ascent of the north face of the Dent Blanche. They climbed frequently with Loulou Boulaz and her partner Michel Darbellay.

Vaucher and her husband joined an international expedition to Mount Everest headed by Norman Dyhrenfurth in 1971; she intended to become the first woman to reach the summit of Everest. Tensions and conflict were rife within the team, however, and the expedition was ultimately unsuccessful. Vaucher, upset with Dyhrenfurth's leadership, is said to have thrown snowballs at him before leaving the expedition.

Vaucher was denied membership of the Swiss Alpine Club until 1979, when she became one of the first women to be made an honorary member. As of 2012, she continues to hike regularly in the Alps, despite having hip and knee replacements.

In 1957, a team of four Austrians: Marcus Schmuck, Hermann Buhl, Fritz Wintersteller and Kurt Diemberger made an ascent of Broad Peak (8,047m). This climb was remarkable for a number of reasons, mostly to do with style:

· It was accomplished without supplementary oxygen
· They had no porters on the mountain, and carried everything themselves
· All four team members summited (a first for an 8, 000 metre peak)
· By reaching the summit, Hermann Buhl became the first person to make 2 first ascents of a mountain over 8,000 metres.

To make this expedition all the more remarkable, Markus Schmuck and Fritz Wintersteller followed their ascent of Broad Peak with a flash ascent of a nearby mountain, Skil Brum (7,360 m), which they climbed in pure alpine style.

This video is a companion to an essay that I wrote on the history of this climb (an updated copy of which can be found on my web site - just search on the title):

Buxton, William (2006). Broad Peak and the 1957 Austrian Karakoram Expedition. Canadian Alpine Journal, 89, 176-183.

100 alpinistes par 100 auteurs. Ce livre présente les portraits écrits de 100 alpinistes qui ont marqué l'histoire de la montagne depuis plus de deux siècles par leur personnalité, leurs ascensions, leurs livres, leur influence... Chaque portrait est écrit par un auteur différent, le plus souvent alpiniste lui-même. Ces cordées d'écriture expriment le lien traversant les générations ou les continents : une fascination, une amitié, ou le souvenir d'une ascension partagée dans la joie ou le drame... Depuis Horace-Bénédict de Saussure raconté par l'historien Antoine de Baecque jusqu'à David Lama présenté par le grimpeur Arnaud Petit, l'histoire de l'alpinisme s'invite dans cette galerie de portraits. Philippe Claudel évoque Catherine Destivelle, Christophe Profit se souvient de Pierre Beghin, Reinhold Messner fait l'éloge d'Hermann Buhl, Joe Simpson de Walter Bonatti, Ueli Steck d'Erhard Loretan... Chaque association est une rencontre, chaque rencontre, une fenêtre ouverte sur les bonheurs multiples de l'alpinisme, au-delà des frontières du temps. Ainsi se rencontrent Erri de Luca et Paul Preuss, Chris Bonington et Albert Frederick Mummery, Sylvain Tesson et Patrick Edlinger ou Jean-Christophe Rufin et Tita Piaz. Ces 100 cordées forment une constellation jubilatoire.