Courmayeur · Italy

Duke of the Abruzzi Alpine Museum

This museum, opened in 1929, preserves the objects of mountaineering: hemp ropes, ice axes as long as walking staffs, nailed boots, photographs of expeditions that departed from here for Alaska, Africa and the Karakoram. But what truly earns the ticket are the guides' logbooks. Every guide possessed one, and at the end of each climb the client entered an assessment in it. There is measured praise, there are recommendations and thanks, written by those who reached the summit on account of another. And there are complaints, sour remarks, unjust verdicts set down by a man who had not succeeded and sought a reason other than his own. Next year's work depended on those lines: a logbook was a reference, and a reference was bread. Many of those books belonged to men who died in the mountains. Their pages remain, in the handwriting of strangers judging their work. It is the most honest museum one could imagine.

Go deeper

What did clients write?

Everything. Often a few lines of measured praise, sometimes an account of the climb, sometimes criticism of character or of the decisions taken. The book was a reference: next year’s work depended on those lines.

Why keep the dead men's books?

Because they are the only place those men are described alive, at work, by people who were there. Gravestones say when they died. The logbooks say how they worked.

Can I see them?

Some are on display, the rest form an archive you can consult on request. Check opening times and access conditions: they change with the season.

Where it is

Strada del Villair 2, 11013 Courmayeur · 45.79176, 6.9727 · Open in Maps

Listen where it happened

Part of Memoro, a free audio guide you open in your browser. No app, no account.