“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there,” wrote author LP Hartley in his novel The Go-Between. He may well have been referring to mountaineering, if this newly-resorted and colorized vintage footage is anything to go by.
Originating in 1899, it shows a team of Victorian climbers on the Mer de Glace on Mont Blanc in France, dressed like they’re about to pop into the local bank and ask for a loan, with satchels rather than backpacks and equipped with variously topped walking sticks that look alarming likely to snap at any moment.
