ABSTRACT
The Year of The Alps – that was how Switzerland designated 1965; within a matter of weeks the theme had been taken up all over the world. Through the years many of us had wondered how, if at all, the centenary of the first ascent of the Matterhorn would be celebrated. In the far-off days between the wars when one was learning to climb it was something about which there was occasional speculation among one’s older friends, but to the teens and twenties of those days life was so full and exciting; we lived for the present and thought only intermittently of an event destined to take place in the misty future of thirty years ahead. Slowly but surely, however, time caught up on us and suddenly everyone realised that great plans were afoot. Secretly and silently, for many years, the Swiss had worked for this day; plans were made on a world-wide scale; the results exceeded the most optimistic expectations.
