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What draws a London surgeon toward steep Alpine rock, bitter cold, and a route no one has yet solved?
In Above the Snow Line, Clinton Thomas Dent leaves his medical work behind for summers among the high peaks of the Alps. His mountaineering sketches bring you into early starts, cold air, and the slow search for a way up difficult rock.
The steep granite spire of the Aiguille du Dru above Chamonix stands at the heart of Dent’s climbing life. Alongside the challenge of the mountains comes dependence on guides such as Burgener, whose knowledge of weather, snow, and rock makes trust on the rope essential.
What you’ll discover
- A surgeon in the Alps Meet a London medical man who spends his spare summers seeking difficult heights.
- The hard needles of Chamonix Discover the steep rock challenges that remain when many great Alpine summits are already climbed.
- Trust on the rope See how guides and climbing partners depend on knowledge shared far above familiar ground.
- Weather and real risk Enter a world of simple equipment, uncertain weather, and patient work toward a route.
- A calm Victorian voice Enjoy Dent’s dry manner as he describes danger without turning each climb into a rush.
Who will love it
Readers who love mountain adventure told with a wink, armchair travellers drawn to the Alps of the 1870s, and anyone curious about guides and first ascents.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A mountain holds the sketches together
- Skill grows through patient practice
- Careful observation matters more than promises
- Failure reveals the route ahead
- Conditions decide the safer route
- Turning back can show good judgement
- Burgener turns persistence into a plan
- Rules need reasons behind them
- Judgement gives the adventures their meaning
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Above the Snow Line
by Clinton Thomas Dent · 1885
Nineteen attempts on the Aiguille du Dru, with rain, a rickety ladder and a deadpan wit, fill this Alpine memoir.
Challenging5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Go on and climb the Alps, you who come after us: nowhere else will you find the same pleasure.”
In short
What would it take to try one rock needle nineteen times? In Above the Snow Line, C. T. Dent answers with rain, a rickety ladder, a silent porter, and a guide named Alexander Burgener who never doubts.
Above the Snow Line at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 5 min4 h 5 min fast, 6 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 73,100 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1885by Clinton Thomas Dent
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Dent chooses the old style of climbing
Dent opens with a climb from 1870, written years later. He wants to see how an old expedition looks after time has softened it. He admits that he is taking an unconscionable time to begin.
He sets that age against the one that followed. In his day, climbers served a patient apprenticeship. He spent five or six seasons in the Alps, and in the first two he never set foot on a snow slope. Later came guideless climbing, winter ascents, and climbs in bad weather by the wrong routes.
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Details
- First published
- 1885
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Dent, Clinton Thomas. Above the Snow Line. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/above-the-snow-line.
Dent, C. T. (2026). Above the snow line. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/above-the-snow-line (Original work published 1885)
Dent, Clinton Thomas. Above the Snow Line. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/above-the-snow-line.
@book{dent2026above,
author = {Dent, Clinton Thomas},
title = {Above the Snow Line},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/above-the-snow-line},
note = {First published 1885}
}
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What is Above the Snow Line about?
It collects sketches of Alpine climbing from the 1870s, written by C. T. Dent. The main thread is the long campaign to climb the Aiguille du Dru, with other climbs, comic hotel scenes, and thoughts on the future of mountaineering.
Did C. T. Dent really climb the Aiguille du Dru?
Yes. Dent and his guides Alexander Burgener and Kaspar Maurer, with J. Walker Hartley, reached the summit in September 1878 on their nineteenth attempt. The book tells the story of that campaign in detail.
Is Above the Snow Line a true story?
The climbs and people are real, and Dent says he kept the mountain facts accurate. He adds comic exaggeration to the hotel scenes and includes one openly made-up fragment that parodies a boastful solo climb.
The author
Clinton Thomas Dent
1850–1912 · British surgeon and mountaineer
Clinton Thomas Dent (1850–1912) was a British surgeon and mountain climber who worked in London. He wrote Above the Snow Line, published in 1885, about mountaineering. He climbed in the Alps and served as president of the Alpine Club from 1886 to 1889. He died in London.
“Go on and climb the Alps, you who come after us: nowhere else will you find the same pleasure.”
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