Count Henry Russell (The man who married a mountain)

Russell's father was Thomas John Russell, who was feudal baron of Killough, County Down, and a relative of Charles Russell, later Baron Russell of Killowen. 

Thomas John Russell emigrated to France aged 22 to escape anti-Catholic discrimination in Ireland. He fought in the Papal Army in 1860 and was made a Papal Count in 1862. Henry was born in Toulouse on St Valentine's Day 1834 to Thomas' second wife, Marie-Josephine-Aglaë-Ferdinande, daughter of the Marquis de Flamarens.

 Henry was educated in Ireland at Clongowes Wood College, and later studied chemistry at Dublin University.  He made regular trips to the west of Ireland, where he fell in love with the wild landscape and developed a love of mountain grandeur.

His family often returned to the Pyrenees and he grew up bilingual.

From 1861, Russell became devoted to the exploration of the Pyrenees.  He is especially known for his ascents of the Vignemale.  He had seen it for the first time with his mother at age six.  He climbed it for the first time on 14 September 1861 with the guide Laurent Passet. H he loved it so much that he climbed it 33 times and, with local masons, he dug numerous 'cave-homes' near the summit. and even declared that: 'She will be my spouse'

This was the era that the Alps were being climbed and explored but most of the Pyrenees remained untouched.  He preferred the Pyrenees - they inspired tenderness, the Alps terror and he made more than thirty 'First Ascents' there with and without guides.  A man of incredible stamina, he often walked for twelve hours at a stretch, conquering new peaks or visiting old favourites.  Apart from Vignemale he climbed Pic du Midi thirty times.

He contributed to the foundation of two organisations: Société Ramond to honour Ramonde  Carbonnieres, an early writer and traveller in the Pyrenees; and Club Alpin Français (CAF), the French Alpine Club and initiated the construction of the refuges (mountain huts), of which there are now  more than 100.

Anniversary edition.

Caves on Vignemale

He is well remembered in the region with a large bronze statue in Gavarnie, a peak named after him and a street in Pau. 

Sheepskin Sleeping bag.

   For further details of his mountaineering, see:

In search of peaks, passes and glaciers,  By Frank Nugent (Collins Press);

The man who married a mountain, Paul Clements, in Vol 3, IMEHS journal, Mountaineering Ireland

The man who married a mountain, Rosemary Bailey,  (Bantam)

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