Alexander Burgener

Alexander Burgener (1845 to 1910), from Saas Fee, was a Swiss mountain guide and the first ascentionist of many mountains and new routes in the western Alps during the silver age of alpinism. With Albert Mummery he made the first ascent of the Zmuttgrat on the Matterhorn on 3 September 1879, of the Grands Charmoz in 1880 and of the Aiguille du Grépon in the Mont Blanc Massif on 5 August 1881, and with the British alpinist Clinton Thomas Dent he made the first ascents of the Lenzspitze in August 1870 and the Grand Dru on 12 September 1878. He was killed by an avalanche on 8 July 1910 near the Berglihütte in the Bernese Alps; six other climbers died with him, including his son Adolf.